As Tripura emerges as India’s Agarwood hub, farmers across the country are eyeing its cultivation. However, unlocking its full potential requires streamlining regulatory policies
The Agar tree known scientifically as Aquilaria malaccensis in India is found primarily in the North-Eastern states of Assam, Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh. The capital city of Agartala was once full of Agarwood trees and hence named after it by the Tripura Royal family. Myanmar, Sumatra, Laos, Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore, Borneo and the Philippines. It is a critically endangered tree species due to its heavy demand and illegal trade and is on the Red list of the International Union of Conservation of Nature (IUCN). There are 15 crore Agarwood trees in India and the tree species are making a ripple in Tripura due to proactive actions taken by the state government on its promotion and value addition and providing a platform for its conservation and promotion on private lands. Now farmers from other states are taking seedlings from Tripura and North-East and this species is poised to grow in other suitable localities. I visited Tripura in the second week of this month to study the economic and ecological potential of Agar trees in Tripura and as such for the farmers of the country. The Architecture of Agar tree management especially in Tripura has undergone a sea change for the last eight to ten years and the Dharmanagar area in North Tripura is now becoming an epicentre of Agar tree propagation and value addition.
Earlier the distillation units were raided and destroyed by the forest department now is being promoted along with the big push for plantation on farmers’ land considering its immense potential for increasing the income of farmers manifold. Considering the demand for Agarwood oil and chips in the international market especially in Middle Eastern countries there is huge scope for its propagation in a big way. The Agarwood market was initially monopolised by a single family of Assam as it thrived also from illegal cutting of trees from Tripura and Assam but now after a major policy thrust by the government and involvement of farmers and traders, Tripura is driving not only the conservation of Agarwood tree but leading the nation in its innovative value addition.
Thanks to policy support from the state government the forest department during the last seven years has worked on all fronts of Agar from propagation to marketing to value addition and soon it will be grown in every homestead making its conservation easy and value addition perfect for the farmers to earn big money. Let us discuss the economics of growing Agarwood trees and the steps needed to be further taken by the government of India and the States. Each tree if inoculated artificially or naturally attacked by fungi like Fusarium, Lasiodiplodia, Penicillium, and Aspergillus after around seven years of age or more will yield resin in the next 5 to 6 years and the tree shall be felled to extract the resin which then can be distilled to produce around 20 to 25 ml of Agar oil worth Rs 20,000 and worth Rs 80,000 wood chips in the international and national market according to Mr Parvin Agrawal IFS officers who as head of Agar project oversaw the Agarwood revolution in Tripura. The sale price of one litre of Agar oil in the international market is 10 lakhs per litre and of the chips is 1 lakh per kg.
A farmer can earn anything between 15 to 20 lakh per year from around 500 trees in one hectare of Agarwood plantation and thus 2 crores in ten to fifteen years. Agar, therefore, is a Golden Green Tree and a wonderful gift of nature that needs to be promoted on a large scale in India through trials along with a policy push that helps farmers adopt it on a large scale. During my visit, I spoke with Mr Mamon Ali proprietor of ‘Momin Enterprise distillery’in Kadamtala in North Tripura and visited his plantations and distillery. He is having a turnover of more than one crore every year.
The government of Tripura has also promoted its diversification in perfume making from the oil of Agar resin. In Middle Eastern countries Agar oil is used directly but a few value addition units for perfume and Agarbatti production had been set up by a few entrepreneurs in Tripura and the quality of the perfume is very pleasing. In yet another example, the forest department had through a public-private partnership initiated a project to artificially inoculate agar plantation near Agartala through chemicals under which nine inoculation supplier firms are participating. The initial results are encouraging after burning the chips for perfume. The chips are sold for religious purposes to Buddhists and other religious groups and for that, the smoke yields a good fragrance.
During my visit to Tripura, I met a senior Priest of Mahakaal Jyotirlinga Ujjain in Agartala on February 11 who is going to invest 5 crore to help farmers grow Agar trees in collaboration with the forest department to produce Agarwood dust for the Mahakaal temple of Ujjain.
The Royal family of Baroda had funded him for this investment. Now the question is what needs to be done at the national level to promote income generation for the farmers. Agar tree is under the Convention on International Trade on Endangered Species (CITES) of wild flora and fauna. Therefore, Agar product sales and exports are regulated as per international protocols. For every state, a quota is fixed and recently the Government of India had increased the quota from states. However, if we want to make Agar Tree a household tree the government needs to emulate the example of one trader Mr Habib Chaudhury from Assam. He took his Agar business from Assam to Laos and settled there and is now a very rich and big trader because he found the Laos government had created a very trader and farmer-friendly quick system of approval for export within a few days.
In India, it is still a big bureaucratic process and involves a lot of paperwork at every stage which discourages the farmers and entrepreneurs. The government apart from promoting Agar plantation trials in suitable agro-climatic zones of the country must first create a customer-friendly business environment.
Like in Laos, the DFO office should issue the clearance online and it must have online access with govt of India and the CITES office simultaneously so that clearance is given to traders quickly. With a suitable infrastructure and a friendly regulatory policy framework, the Agarwood business profile has the potential of touching 15,000 to 20,000 crores in the next ten to twelve years.
The tea export of 250.7 million kg during the fiscal year 2023-24 with a value of US$ 776 million corresponding to around 7,000 crores Rupees. I have been writing to create an Agarwood and Red Sanders Board at the government of India level to promote these two species at the international level and to double the farmer’s income as desired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and discussed with PCCF and Principal Secretary RK Samal who is keen on leapfrogging the Agarwood policy framework.
It is, therefore, high time that both Centre and States sit together and chalk out a policy framework for this by creating a National Board for Agarwood and Red Sanders to be housed in the Commerce Ministry.
(The writer is former Director-General of ICFRE and Chancellor FRI Deemed University, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change; views are personal)
