GUWAHATI, Aug 12 - The inventions of the artificial infection process of agarwood (Aquilaria malaccensis Lam) trees and the sachi vekur (agarwood fungus) species that has the capacity to swarm rapidly in agarwood trees, have virtually changed the entire scenario concerning the prospect of the State�s agarwood-based industry.
Khumtai-based Jehirul Islam, chairman of the MJI Group, is the inventor of the artificial infection process of agarwood trees, called �facilitated rapid infection of fungus in agarwood�. He is also the main brain behind the latest decision of the State Cabinet to accord industrial status to agarwood-related activities.
Also the winner of the Times Best Agarwood Plantation Motivator of Assam Award, 2019 and the IIT Guwahati�s MoU partner for a collaborative research on sachi vekur, etc., Islam talking to this newspaper said that though he could invent the above process of rapid infection of agarwood trees in 2012, the real success in this area came to him in 2016-17.
In 2018, IIT Guwahati issued a certificate to him stating that his rapid infection process was successful. Following this, he got the process patented with the Patent Authority of India.
The agar oil produced from agarwood trees infected with sachi vekur through his method, after three and nine months of infection, were found to be of high quality with long lasting aroma, Islam said, adding that he has also developed a plantation process for agarwood trees.
He said following his process, 576 agarwood tress could be grown on a plot of one bigha of land, planting the saplings at an interval of 5 ft x 5 ft. These trees could be infected when they attain the age of eight years and above. And after three years of inoculating the fungus, they would start producing quality agar oil, Islam said.
By organising the agarwood farmers, Islam is now planning to cover around 20,000 bighas of State�s land under agarwood plantation within the next 12 years. At present, there are around 30,000 bighas of land in the State under agarwood plantation. These plantations have around two crore agarwood trees. Of these trees, it is assumed that around 20 per cent are mature, he said.
The State government�s proposed International Agarwood Trade Centre at Golaghat is expected to be complete by the next two years. This trade centre is going to benefit all the agarwood farmers and traders of the State. It is roughly estimated now that this trade centre will help growth of an annual business worth around Rs 5,000 crore, if the government provides all the required support to it.
This will also have a bearing on the State�s tourism sector, besides the agarwood-based industries, among others.
Meanwhile, some tea estates (TEs) in upper Assam have individually taken to agarwood plantation and in Dibrugarh district, there are around 12,000 ripe-to-be-infected agarwood trees in some of these TEs. For the past about one and half a year, Islam has been working on infecting such mature trees, applying his �facilitated rapid infection of fungus in agarwood trees� process.
At present, there is a growing interest among the tea planters, traders, entrepreneurs and farmers to take to agarwood plantation. Many of them have already started their agarwood plantations, Islam said.