Feature image courtesy: Krishi Jagran

On most mornings in Lalpur village, long before the sun fully filters through the sal trees, Milan Singh Vishwakarma is already out walking beneath their dappled canopy. To an outsider, these trees may seem ordinary. But to Milan, they’re life-givers.

It is here, on his modest 26-acre farm in Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh, that Milan has found prosperity not by sowing the usual grains or vegetables, but by nurturing something far less obvious: lac, a resin produced by tiny insects that thrive on these native trees.

Once unsure of how he’d sustain his family with just a Class 12 education and a patch of land, Milan now earns over Rs 6 lakh a year, not through flashy innovation or external investment, but by trusting the land and listening to nature.

His journey is a quiet revolution in a world chasing high-tech fixes for rural poverty. Sometimes, the answers grow right in your backyard.