Buchania Lanzan, commonly known as Achaar, Char or Chironji, is found in deciduous forests through out greater part of India. It is a medium sized tree, with straight trunk, and has dark grey or black fruit, divided into small rectangular plates.

Availability and Spread

An estimate done in 80s suggests that availability of Chironji is significant in the forests of MP. The state carved 95 % in terms of production and 85% of revenue in Chironji trade in undivided MP. Occurrence of Chironji is concentrated in central and southern MP in the divisions of Sagar, Shahdol, Seoni, and Chindwara. As per estimate of state MFP federation, total potential of Chironji in undivided MP is 5000 tonnes per annum that can generate 8 lakh person days of employment. The trees are found in farmlands as well as commons, scattered widely in forests and hence it takes lot of time and patience to collect significant amount of Chironji to process or sell.

Utilisation

Its wood is used locally for boxes, bedsteads, yokes, poles, doors and furniture. Leaves are used for fodder. Local people eat the fruit and kernels are extracted and dried for sale in market. The oily seeds kernel is the economically most valuable component. It is the kernel that is a delicacy and is therefore highly priced. Kernels that have a flavour somewhat between that of Pasta and Almond are eaten raw or roasted. They are commonly used in preparation of milk-based sweets.

Apart from the kernel being used in delicacies, oil extracted from kernel is used as medicine for skin diseases and is reported to remove spots and blemishes from face. The roots are used for treating nausea and for curing blood diseases. The juice of the leaves is used as an expectorant, purgative, and aphrodisiac. The gum in addition to being similar to inferior gum Arabic also contains medicinal properties. Chironji tree is also an alternative house for kusumi lac insect.

Collection and Processing

Villagers collect Chironji for self-consumption as well as selling. All members of family irrespective of sex and age engage themselves in collection. While male members either climb the tree or use a long bamboo stick with a hook attached to pluck fruits, women and children collect fruits in bamboo baskets on ground.

Collectors first decay pulp in cow dung, remove decayed pulp, wash the seed in water and then stone grind to separate kernel from stone. Before storing it into kothis or gunny bags, washed seeds are sun dried for 4-5 hours to remove excess moisture. The kernels are hand picked and kept aside, broken pieces of kernel and powder being stored for self-consumption. Total time for collection and processing is about 6 -7 days. Often gutli is not properly washed and dried, which is why it fetches less price.

The villagers, although few, store seeds in bamboo baskets, covered with leaves to prevent moisture contact and in this form it can be stored for months at a stretch. The kernels are then sold at remunerative prices in season of high demand, mostly during festivals. Once kernel has been extracted it cannot be stored in gunny bags or earthen structures as it develops bad odour in contact with air and darkens in colour. Storing in polythene bags before putting it to gunny bag enhances life. It can be kept in cold storage for still longer shelf life.

Processed in a hand grinder, most kernels are broken, thus selling at low prices. A simple step of sorting gutli by size (through sieving) and grinding after setting appropriate space between grinding stones increases proportion of intact kernels. Power driven kernel extractors can be used that are 3-4 times faster and reduce losses. Bigger size kernels always fetch higher price, so it is important that it is graded before being sold.

Processing Chironji to get Kernel is not highly cost effective at the individual level as it is difficult to break them in one piece. Exclusive Chironji processing centres are not available due to inadequate scale of operations. But there is a person in Raipur who processes Chironji to extract kernels in a Dal processing machine.

The guthli shell after Chironji extraction remains in large quantity. On burning, it generates high temperature at a constant level for a longer period of time that makes it very popular fuel to be used in brick kilns.

Fruits from trees in farm lands get better price because of being collected at a mature stage, but fruit from forest areas are plucked raw that does not fetch high price. High demand for gutli often leads to harvesting of fruits at immature stage. Kernels are then small and gutli lighter. As a result rejection percentage increase. As a value addition option, collection can be delayed till such time, when fruits are fully mature.

Then it is the seed that is sold rather then kernel, even though later fetches much higher price (could be as high as 10-12 time) then former. Reluctance of villagers to separate kernel from seed might be due to the reason that villagers are not sure of quantity or quality of kernels from semi ripe fruits thereby preferring to sell seeds rather then spending labour and time on extracting kernel.

Production and Pricing

Both kernel and seeds are traded extensively. The price of Char guthli depends on % of seeds having kernel. This is again decided by a traditional method of putting 100 seeds in water. The number of seeds out of 100 sinking in water conveys the % of good seed and determines the price. Large and intact kernels fetch better price than broken and smaller ones and as guthli varies in size, extracting intact kernels becomes difficult proposition. Other parameters of quality are – shine (whiter is better) and sweetness. The prices between guthli and chironji can vary by 10 to 20 times.

The prices discussed and quoted in markets are essentially prices for char that contain 100% seed. In any event it is rare that price above 90% of the market is paid, as it is believed that at least 10% seeds would still have no kernel even if all 100 seeds in sample sink. However, it is not that the seeds that do not sink are completely useless, although the kernels are very light and lack same sweetness as the best. Traders while selling it to end user, mix poor quality kernels with good ones.

The following figures in the trade channel (as on 1997) gives an idea of Price Efficiency in the produce.

Trade Aspects

Primary collectors exchange unprocessed char seeds in local market against rice. One kg of unprocessed char seed costs 2 kg of rice or Rs 15 - 20 and processed char costs Rs 150-160 that is also exchanged with rice. 1 Kg of unprocessed char seed can produce 200-250 gm of chironji. As processing of chironji is time consuming and results in lots of wastage, primary collectors don't want to sell it processed form. A person if engaged fully in collection of char can collect a maximum of 20 kg per day.

Char is transported to Delhi, Banaras and Kanpur by train. Depending on quality of char rate varies from Rs 20 - 40 per kg.