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Landrace.wiki
The open database for landrace cannabis populations, their genetics and the traditional knowledge that sustains them.
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ZOM-IND-WEB-0620250014
Fulkardabri - Raja's Selection 2025 is a domesticate landrace cannabis accession collected by Éloïse and Isabella of the Zomia Collective in West Bengal, India.
Bengal Presidency cannabis trade
Bengal Presidency cannabis trade refers to the licensed, excise-regulated commerce in cannabis preparations - ganja, bhang and charas - across the Bengal Presidency under East India Company and Crown rule, from the consolidation of Company authority in the late eighteenth century to Partition in 1947. From the 1790s the colonial state taxed cannabis through a licensing system inherited from Mughal-era *abkari* (excise) practice, and over the nineteenth century it confined licensed cultivation to a single small tract in northern Bengal, the Ganja Mahal around Naogaon, while the manufactured product was distributed and consumed across the Presidency and beyond.
The trade was built on a graduated excise duty levied at the point of issue from licensed warehouses, on a small body of wholesale dealers who carried the drug under transport permit, and on a network of licensed retail shops. It was examined in detail by the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission of 1893–94, which rejected prohibition and recommended that the Bengal model of confined cultivation, warehouse monopoly and high duty be extended to the other provinces of British India. Although it generated significant revenue, the cannabis trade was always far smaller than the opium trade that dominated colonial fiscal policy in Bengal. … read more →
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Cannabis eradications
We are witnessing the rapid disappearance of traditional cultivation knowledge and genetic diversity in cannabis. These landrace populations represent thousands of years of natural and human selection, containing unique genetic traits and chemical profiles. Systematic documentation and conservation efforts can serve as a bridge, preserving irreplaceable genetic heritage while supporting traditional communities and advancing our understanding of this remarkable plant.
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