 "Lemongrass")
Kannauj, the parliamentary constituency of Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav's wife Dimple, is seeking international recognition for its success in lemongrass farming.
From the current acreage of about 50 acres, the total area under lemongrass farming is targetted to increase to 500 acres this season.
Recently, a five-member World Bank team had made field visits to Kannauj to review the various initiatives taken by the Uttar Pradesh government to develop fallow/barren land.
Lemongrass is grown in wasteland, which makes it cost effective for farmers vis-à-vis other plants cultivated for extracting oil for use in perfumes, flavours and pharmaceuticals.
Currently, about 100 farmers are associated with lemongrass cultivation, which had a sleepy start about a decade back owing to the initiatives by Fragrance & Flavour Development Centre (FFDC), which was set up jointly at Kannauj in 1991 by the central and UP governments.
Now, two lemongrass oil extraction units have also been proposed in Kannauj. The World Bank team had lauded the government for its on-field success in lemongrass farming and which has the potential to be replicated in other parts of the world to reclaim fallow land.
An acre of lemongrass farm gives about 80 kg of oil per year and the lemongrass oil sells for nearly Rs 750 per kg.
"The state government is keen to promote lemongrass farming and we are also taking various initiatives to encourage more farmers to adopt it," FFDC assistant director (agro technology and extension) Dr R K Srivastava told Business Standard.
FFDC is an interface between essential oil, fragrance and flavour industry.
Apart from domestic consumption, lemongrass extracts are also exported from Kannauj, he informed.
Since, Kannauj is a VIP constituency, the government is taking measures to develop it as a hub for perfumery, which lacks in proper marketing on international stage.
Yadav had in May 2015 visited Grasse, known as the French perfume capital, for closer cooperation between Grasse and Kannauj. The government plans to develop a 400 acre 'itr' manufacturing zone in Kannauj, which would house distillation, extraction and export manufacturing units.
