The research project on new host trees for lac cultivation.

        Thailand is considered to be the second largest cultivation of lac in the world    after India.  Certainly, we still have opportunity to grow more , since now a day we do the cultivation only once per year using only rain trees and Lychee trees as the main hosts. While India can cultivate varieties of lac up to four times a year on different host trees.

        Our company, together with others involved, did realize this opportunity and had started to look for different kinds of host trees. There are two kinds being on trial, one is  “ pigeon pea” ( Cajunus cajan Millsp.) a kind of bush tree which is easy to grow and harvest, but the yield is still limited and need to work out for more. The  other is “Croton persimilis Müll.Arg.”which is relatively new and had just started. We do hope to see better result so that farmers may return their interest   to grow more lac in the near future.