Lac cultivation and host tree planatation in northern Thailand

Abstract

The technique of lac cultivation in northern Thailand, including breeding of the lac insect and management of host tree plantations are described. The historical changes in tree species used as host are also discussed. Traditionally, lac was cultivated on wild host trees. Since the introduction of the rain tree (Samanea saman) at the beginning of this century, lac has been cultivated in host tree plantations. It has spread widely as a host tree over northern Thailand. Lac cultivation, host tree plantation and rice cultivation are combined into an agro-forestry system in the farm household economy. With the increasing demand for shellac on the world market. Thailand has become one of the world's leading producing countries and rain tree plantations have increased. Nowadays, these plantations are a very important source of timber for the local market. -from English summary