Last year, we supported the cultivation of lemongrass on 100 acres of fallow land in a tribal district of Madhya Pradesh. One year later we reflect on the successes, challenges, and learnings.
Agriculture is a sector where patience and perseverance are keys to success. Farmers who actively followed best practices saw good yields of lemongrass herbage and received their first income from the crop. Post-harvest and the onset of monsoon, the crop growth has been stronger and farmers are expecting a marked increase in their revenues from the crop this year.
Demonstrated results and word-of-mouth marketing are pre-requisites to scale in Agricultural operations. Bolstered by last year’s success, new cultivation this season is expected to reach 350 acres with farmers stepping forward of their own accord. Farmers below the poverty line will avail of financial support from dedicated schemes available at the village panchayat level which have been mobilised in conjunction with district administration.
Partnerships between various stakeholder groups are essential to address roadblocks. Operational challenges of delivering a project of this scale were quite a few including arranging good quality planting material, mobilisation, and training of farmers, ongoing support for best practices. This necessitated coordination and support of various agencies including Department of agriculture, Horticulture, CIMAP, district administration, and local administration.
Our dedicated team of agronomists have been working on the ground relentlessly to ensure the successful delivery of the project. The lemongrass oil produced from the project will be fully traceable to the last mile, REACH registered to enable exports and will make a positive financial impact on 600 farmers and their communities. The targeted size of the project is 900 acres of lemongrass cultivation within the next 12 months with expected production of 60MT of lemongrass oil annually.
We invite industry participants looking to secure sustainable, unadulterated, transparent, and traceable lemongrass oil supply chains to reach out to us to discuss further.
LemongrassOil OriginOils SustainableSupplyChain
