Sh. Ashok Kumar Patel S/o Late Sh. Narayan Singh Patel, A farmer (education 12th standard) of village Rishewada, block Narharpur, district Kanker, Chhattisgarh doing lac cultivation since last 25 years but the average annual income he got from lac cultivation was very less. He has 10 Palas land 14 Kusum tree available for lac cultivation. He has 5 acres of irrigated agricultural lac in which paddy and vegetable are produced in majority. Previously he was doing lac cultivation with traditional methods i.e. only inoculation and harvesting of lac, no intermediate crop operational/pest management etc. He got first hand information on scientific method of lac from Forest Department, Kanker and attended a On-farm training conducted by I.I.N.R.G., Ranchi at Kanker, during the year 2006. He started scientific lac cultivation with adopting all improved technique of lac cultivation i.e. coupe system, pruning of host, selection of quality broodlac, phunki removal, spray of fungicide and insecticide etc. He is also using improved lac cultivation implements in lac production process. Besides his own lac host trees he has taken 40 ber land 2 kusum trees as lease basis and made scientific lac cultivation. During the year 2007-08, he has produced broodlac and sticklac worth Rs. 86,000 from 30 ber and 8 kusum trees. On average he earns profit of Rs. 1000 per ber tree and Rs. 7000 per kusum tree. During the year 2008-09 he has taken lac production from 30 ber and 5 kusum trees and produced around 4.5 quintal of broodlac (worth Rs. 40,000) and around 1.6 quintal of sticklac (worth Rs. 10,000).  

With the scientific method of lac cultivation his earning from lac has increased tremendously. He is so motivated for lac cultivation and wants to increase the lac host trees for lac cultivation. He had planted 40 ber trees in his field for the purpose of lac cultivation. He sells broodlac with the help of Forest Department, Kanker and sells sticklac directly to the lac processing unit situated at Kanker. With the earning from lac he has purchased a motor cycle, mobile phone and one pair of ox. He also made barbed fencing of his lac host trees. He has motivated various farmers in his and neighboring villages for lac cultivation through information on scientific methods of lac cultivation and profitability in lac cultivation. Sh. Patel is now a source of inspiration to other farmers in that area for lac cultivation.