The young teenage boy gets
enrolled himself in the school at the age of fourteen. He starts his school as
early as 4 am in the morning and gets back home by dusk in late evening or
sometimes at night. He does his best and completes fourth grade. He discontinues
his studies despite being a bright student to help his aging parents at home. He
then joins his eldest brother to earn some money as laborer in Agarwood
business somewhere in Assam boarder and Nagaland in India. He promises some
gift to his young bride on his return from the forest far away in foreign
land. This is the brief story of my hardworking father.
His Agarwood stories of
experience in the filed as young man use to thrill me. It was like horror movie
story telling when he shared that they once shifted their camp in fallen dried
logs to find out later it was a giant anaconda sleeping for long time to
capture its prey. As I recall now that I was not matured enough to understand the details of the
Agarwood business they did with the Indian counterpart in the deep jungle. He narrated that they used to select the most matured tree and try their luck to find its black trunk. The matured black
trunk fetched them a good price. Their luck favored by few trees as they kept
hunting one tree to another for months because not all trees get that money
trunk.
That was the Agori Tree (he sounded) story I lived with
since some two decades ago until I found one in Panbang at late Dasho Nishioka’s
residence at Agar Camp near Panbang Bridge. The Agarwood plantation in Panbang
must have been inspired by this far sighted Japanese man who had his vision for
Bhutan some five decades ago in 1970s but none of us gave a heed. Today, we
have his farm land as Agriculture Research & Development Centre (ARDC) and
about two hundreds of Agarwood trees probably four to five decades’ old are thriving
there. We took all these years to decide for nursery and plantation as we don’t
find any planted saplings older than five years in average. Nevertheless, it’s
not too late to start than never. We now can find nursery in almost every household
in Panbang at Nu.15 to 20 per sapling.
Similarly, the trend of nursery
and planation in lower Kheng to Nganglam in the South to Samdrup Jongkhar in
the East is gaining its popularity except Samtse in the West. The people of
East has somehow expected its good return in future and has invested in good
amount and time. The dry lands with most of their orange produce declining each
year has been replaced with Agarwood plantation. Some retired senior citizen has
planted in large scale in their dryland and also in leased land. These lot of
bold entrepreneurs might reap the perfect retirement benefit if they live
another decade. However, many older and even younger lot doesn’t want to invest
in this time taking project with minimum pay pack period of ten to fifteen
years. Thus, few optimistic groups are taking serious in large scale
plantation.
The Agarwood is the fragrant
dark resinous wood formed in the heartwood of aquilaria tress when they become
infected with a type of mold (Phialophora parasitica). The
tree produces a dark aromatic resin called Aloes
or Agar as infection progress. This
resin embedded heartwood contains distinctive fragrance which is used for
incense, medicine and perfumes. The natural formation of aloes or agar is only
about 7 out of 100 Aquilaria trees and a common method in artificial forestry
is to inoculate tress with the fungus (Wikipedia). We do have most probably Aquilaria Malaccensis or Aquilaria Agallocha species in Bhutan which is
world class and considered best in international markets (Kuensel, December 1st,
2015).
The growers are obviously opting
for inoculation rather than waiting for natural formation which takes at least
20 years. While, the inoculation brings down the harvest time almost halves of
it to 8 to 10 years at the max and some aspiring investors are expecting in 5 years’
time which might be too optimistic target. Some Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)
was interested to invest in Bhutan few years’ back but pandemic destroyed the
plan. They wanted to inoculate in 6th year tree and harvest after
two years in 8th year at $230 per tree which might be similar to
Hazelnut agreement by Mountain Hazelnut Venture (MHV). While, our own private entrepreneurs
are trying bold to inoculate in 3rd year and harvest after two years
in 5th year which may inspire many growers if it is successful. In price
also they are planning at lucrative rate of Nu. 10,000 per kilogram to the
growers. However, the growers need to bear the inoculation charges of Nu.800 to
Nu.1200 per tree if they want to inoculate in 3rd year as the
inoculation charges goes up for bigger or matured trees.
What makes many growers still
doubtful on this long term investment is less expertise on nursery for large
scale planation and the market at end. However, the Green Bhutan Corporation
Ltd. (GBCL) may soon guide and lead the growers in large scale nursery. The
existing nursery growers are putting their indigenous knowledge to collect the local
seed from the mother trees and grow in small polythene bag. Some grow in mother
bed and later transplant it to poly bag. Some even prefer to let it grow under
the mother tree soil bed and transplant it in the poly bag later. The seed and
sapling adapt only in natural topsoil and clay without any compost or cow dung manure
and fertilizers. The seed can germinate within 2 to 3 months and grow to about 10
to 15 cm tall in another few months. The sapling can be planted in the field by
June and needs care where some insects attack the young leaves. It needs to be
treated with some insecticides spray which is not preferred but the pest
control must be there for proper growth of the saplings. One can choose the desired
plantation pattern keeping sufficient space in between ranging from 2 meters to
5 meters’ distance. The saplings can grow up to 8-foot tall in 18 months in favorable
soil condition and southern elevation.
The artificial inoculation also
yet to be fully successful and today there are few private individuals with
permits who are carrying out the inoculation on trial basis. Some growers are
reluctant to inoculate as their trees are dying with probably different grade
inoculation chemical used by the suppliers. The domestic market in traditional medicine
at Nu.70 per kilogram doesn’t impress growers (Kuensel, December 1st,
2015). We may have potential numbers of trees around one lakh plus for the
inoculation in next five years and would start production in 10 years from now
for export. Thus, the growers and investors are hopeful that our Research and
Development Centre (RDC) would soon present credible proof on its commercial
viability in international market in near future with the export permit from CITES
(Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and
Flora).
The value addition in the product
with processing unit in Bhutan in future would add more value to our fragile economy.
We may add to our private forest list even if we fail to harvest for international
market. We may add to the green forest repository in carbon sequestration to be
a Carbon Neutral country in all times to come. Above all, we will be able to
conserve it from its IUCN Red List of Critically
Endangered category. If every one of us plant a single agarwood tree in a
Social Forestry Day on 2nd June every year that will keep us away
from the extinction list where some country has already lost its habitat.
b. Agarwood saplings in local nursery in Nganglam (7 months old).
c. Agarwood Trees at Panbang Agar Camp-ARDC planted by late Dasho Nishioka.
f. Agarwood or Aloes. Picture source-Wikipedia.
