Collaborating with the Council is Department of Forests and Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana, which is conducting laboratory trials for studying the impact of Punjab’s own indigenous neem on its local pests.

From Kot Shamir, the contact programme has now travelled to nearby Tungwali village in Bathinda and Sangrur, another district that boasts of huge neem vegetation.

And the targets have gone up too. By the end of this neem fruit season (till August), the Council expects to collect nearly 50 tonnes of fruit, up six-fold from the earlier eight tonnes.

The success run of the first year has led to setting up of the first unit for mechanical de-pulping, drying of seeds and making kernel powder at the Science and Technology Entrepreneur’s Park (STEPS) at the Thapar Institute in Patiala, the third district making remarkable strides in promotion of neem pesticides.

Expecting a surge in demand, another two such units are planned at Bathinda and Sangrur.

With none other than Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal pushing for the cause, Council chairman N S Tiwana is hopeful that Punjab will be freed from the scourge of chemical pesticides within five years.

And when that happens, neem would no longer remain confined to just the Malwa belt. Then women will also have another role to play, that of being part of the large-scale neem plantation.riv