Equipments for Manufacturing Lac Based Value Added Products

Abstract

Lac, a natural resin of insect origin, yields basically three useful materials i.e. resin, wax and dye and is an important source of livelihood for poor and tribal farmers in the lac growing regions. Lac growers harvest lac in form of lac stick and lac encrustations attached with sticks are then scraped which is known as sticklac. Sticklac contains impurities which need to be removed by converting sticklac in to seedlac through different unit operations under primary lac processing so that seedlac, a semi-refined product, can be further used in making lac based value added products i.e. shellac, button lac, bleached lac, aleuritic acid etc. Sticklac converted into seedlac can be stored like grain in jute/gunny bag or metal bin for longer period. Hence, lac grower can sell stored seedlac whenever they get remunerative price. Lac resin being natural, biodegradable and non-toxic, finds application in food, textile, furniture, electrical and pharmaceutical industries and provides immense employment opportunities. Regular demand for the materials derived from lac exists in the market due to global trend for use of natural products. Small scale lac processing unit can be established for conversion of sticklac in to seedlac in production catchment area at grower's level itself. Similarly, integrated small scale lac processing unit can also be utilized for conversion of sticklac in to seedlac with reduced man-power requirement and minimum drudgery. Equipments/machineries developed for manufacturing value added lac-based products may be encouraged in the country to reduce time of operation, drudgery and manpower requirement with enhanced capacity of value addition in lac and to promote entrepreneurship development which may further enhance employment generation. To ensure the quality of produce, traditional equipments/machineries needs replacement with new equipments/machineries made of food grade materials coupled with advanced automation system to the maximum possible extent. Value addition in lac could be promoted and migration of rural and tribal people to other states in search of employment could be minimized with adoption of improved equipment and machineries for value addition of lac at village level so that rural and tribal people may get remunerative price of their product. Hence, increase in sustainable livelihood of rural and tribal people might be possible with adoption of lac value addition sector.