International Journal of Agriculture Extension and Social Development

On the other hand synthetic gulal, used by masses contains heavy metals, sand and soil and can cause ill effect on skin and health. The tessu gulal being skin friendly, thus is an innovative intervention undertaken by KVK Shahdol to enhance the income of farm women. Sixty farm womens were selected and trained for preparation of gulal in two of the villages- Amraha (Block- Sohagpur) and Madva (Block- Burhar). For the preparation of gulal, base material tapioca powder and simple sieves of different mesh size was required. Tessu collected from forest is sorted, separated from pollen and shade dried at home for six days to prepare dried flowers. For the preparation of tessu gulal dye extractant is mixed at different conc. to tapioca powder. The natural colour extractant obtained from filtering is then mixed tapioca powder by continuous mixing with hand followed by sieving and drying of product in shade. The wet mixture is laid on clean mat for drying. The efficiency of production was 5 Kg per day by a single farm woman. The cost of production of 5 Kg of tessu gulal was Rs 940 (including labour cost) with a gross income of Rs. 3000. The B: C ratio comes to be 3.19. Thus, the above seasonal livelihood option seems to enhance the income of farm women considerably.