Bhubaneswar
Singarika Kadraka of Elenwalsa village under Bandhugaon block in Koraput district of Odisha is now feeling easy and content. For, she now does not need to cover about four kilometres to extract oil out of her harvested lemongrass at the distillation plant of a private party at Kalpattu village. Government agency, Odisha Rural Development and Marketing Society (ORMAS), has installed a plant nearby at a cost of Rs. 12 lakh to offset her drudgery.
The Kondh tribal woman has been farming lemongrass in her 20 acres of land since 2007 but had to cough up Rs 600 just to extract three to four kilograms of oil out of the total 500 kilograms’ produce at the Kalpattu distillation plant. Additional amounts were incurred on other processes involved like labour charges.
But since the installation of nine distillation plants in Narayanpatna and Bandhugaon blocks under the district administration’s special central assistance of district planning and monetary unit, now about 1600 farmers, including Singarika, in 83 villages under two blocks are growing lemongrass in about 4000 acres of land.
They find it convenient to extract lemongrass oil, and no more fall prey to the vagaries of unscrupulous traders who used to purchase oil from them at throwaway prices.
“Not just that, it is profitable too. So an increasing number of families have now adopted lemongrass farming. A number of them had experienced huge losses in their earlier cotton cultivation,” said Singarika, who is also the president of Elenwalsa Farmer Producer Group (FPG).
“Most tribals in our village and neighbouring ones had been doing cotton cultivation that many times fetched no loss or no profit. When they switched over to lemongrass farming around 2018 under the promptings of ORMAS they found it more profitable and less labour intensive,” she added.
Female Kondh farmer Bidulata Shirka in village Gatiguda under Narayanpatna block lent credence to Singarika’s contention about the losses incurred in cotton cultivation.
“Two years ago, I expected to earn about Rs. 20,000 from cotton farming in my two acres of land. But we got a little over Rs. 5000. So I bought lemongrass saplings at Rs. 6000 from Bandhugaon block headquarter and planted them in two acres this year,” said Bidulata.
Singarika and others incur almost the same expenditure of Rs 600 for extracting oil at the distillation plant of ORMAS in Elenwalsa but of the total amount Rs 200 goes to the FPG which takes care of all the other nitty-gritty leading to the extraction process. As many as 30 women self-help groups (SHG) under the banner of nine farmer producer groups (FPG) run the plants.
“In the past, the whole setup of lemongrass farming by a section of farmers had been unsystematic and unorganized, as a result of which tribal farmers never got the fair price for their oil from the traders mostly from neighbouring Andhra Pradesh. So in 2018, ORMAS intervened at the behest of the district administration to streamline and strengthen the setup by forming SHG and FPG,” Koraput district collector V. Kirti Vasan told The Indian Tribal.
Each FPG of 20 to 30 members has been provided with Rs. 2.4 lakh for its capacity building and institutional set-up by ORMAS. The society has also formed two producer enterprises (PE) at Narayanpatna and Bandhugaon block headquarters by providing financial support of Rs. 30 lakh to each. These are the places where social workers, agriculturists, horticulturists and experts counsel, train and guide lemongrass growers and even help them make and market their by-products like pain balm, hand wash, phenyl, mosquito repellent, shampoo and massage oil.
During the weeklong training at CIMAP, farmers not only learned the process of oil extraction, but also the procedure of making by-products. The four trained tribals went back and motivated others to resort to lemongrass farming that is said to be more profitable than cotton farming, according to Prasant Kumar Rout, senior principal scientist of CIMAP.
“Cotton farming yields a maximum profit of Rs. 10,000 per acre per annum, according to farmers. But profit from lemongrass farming is sure and certain, as it ranges between Rs. 40,000 and Rs. 50,000 per acre per annum. The profit can shoot up, if its by-products are made and marketed systematically,” said Rout. “Lemongrass oil is in high demand, as pharmaceutical, cosmetic and detergent industries need it to make their products,” he added.
Now ORMAS has submitted a proposal to the State government for setting up four farmer producer companies (FPC) to weed out possible bottlenecks and expand the area of production.
“Each FPC would receive Rs. 1 crore as assistance to run its show. It will constitute its own Krushaka Sansadhana Kendra that will provide not only lemongrass saplings, but also other vegetable seeds and seedlings to farmers along with fertilizers and pesticides,” said Roshan Kartik, the deputy chief executive officer of Koraput unit of ORMAS. “FPC will also help market the oil and its by-products,” he added.
The Koraput Agro Products Producers Company (KAPPC), set up on the line of proposed FPC by ORMAS in Koraput town with a financial assistance of about Rs. 15 lakh, is the first step forward to this goal. It not only produces oil and makes the by-products but also markets them in the brand name of ‘KOLAB’.
The annual turnover from its business in lemongrass oil is about Rs. 15 lakh, according to KAPPC chief executive officer Guru Burudi.
“We imparted training to over 150 members of FPG before zeroing on making and marketing oil. Three months ago we took up the business of its by-products that now prove encouraging. Now the monthly turnover of these by-products hovers between Rs. 3 lakh and Rs. 4 lakh in three months after their business took off,” said Burudi.
However, drastic fluctuations in the price of lemongrass oil that makes a dent in the consistent flow of farmers’ income proves a major drawback. So, ORMAS sets a minimum support price for lemongrass oil to tide over this snag.
“The usual price for oil, set by us, varies between Rs. 1150 and Rs.1250. However, we set the minimum support price for oil at Rs. 1000 so that lemongrass growers do not incur losses,” said Roshan.
