Equipments for manufacturing lac based value added products

Equipments for manufacturing of lac 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.