Agar woodtree- the Green Gold for farmers
Dr VK Bahuguna
February 28, 2025
(The writer is former Director-General of ICFRE and Chancellor FRI Deemed University, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change)
The Agar tree known scientifically as Aquilaria malaccensisin India is found primarily in North-Eastern states of Assam, Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur and Arunanchal 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 its heavy demand and illegal trade and is in the Red list of International Union of Conservation of Nature (IUCN). There are 15 crore Agarwood trees in India and the tree species is making 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 had visited Tripura in the second week of this month to study the economical 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 had undergone a sea change for the last eight to ten years and Dharmanagar area in North Tripura is now becoming an epicenter 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 big push for plantation on farmers land considering its immense potential for increasing the income of farmers manifold. Considering the demand of Agarwood oil and chips in the international
market specially in Middle East countries there is huge scope for its propagation in a big way. The Agarwood market was being initially monopolized 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 government and involvement of farmers and traders Tripura is now driving not only the conservation of Agar wood tree but leading the nation in its innovative value addition. Thanks to policy support from the state government the forest department during last seven years has worked in all front 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 fungus like Fusarium, Lasiodiplodia, Penicillium, and Aspergillusafter around seven years of age or more it will yield resin in 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 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 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 wonderful gift of nature which needs to be promoted on large scale in India through trials along with a policy push that help farmers to adopt it in 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 East countries the 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 public-private partnership had 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 yield good fragrance. During my visit to Tripura I met a senior Priest of Mahakaal Jyotirlinga Ujjain in Agartala on 11th February who is going to make an investment of 5 crore to help farmers grow Agar trees in collaboration with 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 Convention on International Trade on Endangered Species (CITES) of wild flora and fauna. Therefore, Agar product’s sale and export is 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 house hold tree the government need 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 few days. In India it is still a big bureaucratic process and involves lot of paperwork at every stage which discourages the farmers and entrepreneurs. In fact, 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 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 a potential of touching 15,000 to 20,000 crores in 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 for creating an Agarwood and Red Sanders Board at the government of India level to promote these two species at the international level and for doubling the farmers income as desired by the Prime Minister Sri Narendra Modi and discussed with PCCF and Principal Secretary Mr. RK Samal who is keen on leap frogging 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.
(Tripurainfo)