Volume 1 – Issue 3 [November 2020] Page | 26 Article ID: AEN-2020-01-03-007 Lemon grass: A Lucrative Crop for Degraded Lands of Central Gujarat Dinesh Jinger 1* , Vijaysinha Kakade 2 , Vibha Singhal 3 and D. Dinesh 1 1 ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, RC -Vasad, Anand, Gujarat 2 ICAR-National Institute of Abiotic Stress Management, Baramati, Maharashtra 3 ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Dehradun, Uttarakhand *Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]Lemon grass (Cymbopogon flexuosus) is a perennial grass cultivated for its essential oil. It is cultivated in India, China, Myanmar, Africa, Guatemala, South America, Java, Madagascar, and many other countries. The name lemon grass is derived from the typical lemony odour of the essential oil present in the leaves. Lemon grass oil is used in culinary flavouring. It is used in beverages, frozen dairy desserts, candy baked foods, puddings, meat, fat and oils. It is used to improve the flavour of some fish and can be used to flavour wines, sauces etc. It is used extensively in soaps, detergents, house-hold cleaner, mosquito cream, Agarbatti etc. Dried lemon grass leaves are widely used as a lemon flavour ingredient in herbal teas. The well ramified root system of this grass helps in soil and water conservation. Lemon grass is extensively grown in degraded, marginal and waste lands. Lemon grass cultivation at ICAR-IISWC, Research Centre-Vasad, Anand, Gujarat Climate and Soil Lemon grass is a tropical plant grows well in hot and humid climate. It needs at least 1500– 3000 mm annual rainfall. A daytime temperature of 25–30° C is considered optimum for maximum oil production with no extremely low night temperatures. It is drought tolerant in nature, mainly grown as a rainfed crop and grows up to a height of 1.2–3.0 meters. It can be grown in all kinds of soils. It can grow from poor laterites soil (pH 4.5) to alkali soil (pH 8.5) and even up to soil pH of 9.6. It is having soil binding nature, hence useful as vegetative cover for conserving soil and water.
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Volume 1 – Issue 3 [November 2020] P a g e | 26
Article ID: AEN-2020-01-03-007
Lemon grass: A Lucrative Crop for Degraded Lands of Central Gujarat
Dinesh Jinger1*, Vijaysinha Kakade2, Vibha Singhal3 and D. Dinesh1
1ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, RC -Vasad, Anand, Gujarat 2ICAR-National Institute of Abiotic Stress Management, Baramati, Maharashtra 3ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Dehradun, Uttarakhand