Uwineza Mark, Kiwanuka Joseph, Kyalisiima Doreen - I think all of you may benefit by having Citronella growing around your water supplies because it will help reduce mosquitoes and also possibly be a cash crop. Here is one article I found. I dont know where you would buy it - but its something to consider: He describes it as the lazy man’s crop but that has not stopped Nyamulula Sebastian, 65, from planting a patch of citronella grass. That popular description of the grass that is fast emerging as an alternative source of income to some 5,000 households in eastern Uganda stems from the fact that unlike most crops, citronella demands little by way of labour and other inputs. Citronella is one of two aromatic grasses (lemon grass is the other) that Uganda’s National Crops Resources Research Institute (NaCRRI) in partnership with FARM-Africa’s Maendeleo Agricultural Technology Fund is promoting as an alternative source of income for residents in a cluster of districts in eastern Uganda whose income and food security is threatened by shifting weather patterns and tired soils. In Kibuku district, one of the new administrative units recently carved out of Pallisa district, production and yields of cereals and grains that were the area’s traditional food and cash crops have seen sharp declines over the past decade with attendant social implication. Mr Nyamalula and his 20-member “Buseta Tukolerahamu” (Buseta Let’s Work Together) Group, were among the first people to embrace citronella and Lemon grass cultivation in 2009. “You weed once and wait to harvest. Compared with maize where up to 50 per cent of earnings are eaten up by costs if you are lucky to get a good harvest, citronella is a cheap crop to produce and the price is good,” he says. Planting an acre of citronella on average costs Ush250,000 ($106) and yet one earns as much as Ush 1 million $425 a year over the seven- year cycle that citronella stays in the ground. From his 0.75 acre, Sebastian harvested 5.7 tonnes of citronella, fetching Ush570,000 ($242) in the first year. That is significant income in Kibuku District where according to district vice-chair Mupalama Christopher, half of the population of 180,000 is classified as poor. Wasena George 30, who heads the 17-member Buminza Twekolere Group, another co-operative in the area says his quarter acre field earns him Ush240,000 ($102) a year. A crop of maize from the same acreage would earn half that in a year in the best of circumstances. “Growing grass is better than other crops because after weeding and spot-picking, there is no spraying,” says Ndingwa Akisoferi, a farmer who says no other crop had earned him as much as the Ush800,000 ($340) he made. The crop was introduced to the area by the Pallisa District Farmers Association (PAFA), which working NaCRRI, distributed seed material to farmers and FARM-Africa’s Maendeleo Agricultural Technology Fund which bankrolled the project. With a kilogramme of lemon grass selling at Ush180 ($0.076) and citronella at Ush100/kg ( $0.42) farmers have an opportunity to achieve food security through increased incomes. Though challenged by pests, lemon grass rids the soil of striga, a parasitic weed that affects cereals production and when planted in rotation with grass in seven-year cycles, cereal yields tend to recover. All local governments are on board and in Kibuku, the local administration is looking for funds to provide a water source to the distillation plant that is currently lying idle. According to Kirya George, the chairperson of Pallissa District Farmers Association PAFA, the plant with a capacity to process 0.5 tonnes of grass per day is crucial to the sustainability of the project. Currently, farmers depend on a distilling plant in Tororo, 50 kilometres away to sell their production and transport eats into their margins. The local governments are interested because earning farmers widen the local tax base. A litre of citronella oil on the local market sells for $20 while that of lemon grass fetches double that figure. According to Othieno Odoi from the Uganda Export Promotion Board that are participating as partners to help find markets, the domestic market can adequately off-take the quantities being produced now. Citronella oil has wide application in the cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries while lemon oil enjoys high demand by the food industry. “We are encouraging them to start with the local market because it can help them build the capacity to compete in export markets that can have demanding conditions,” he says.
Posted on: Wed, 03 Sep 2014 06:26:07 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015