LADANG INTEGRASI ver1.01

After my proposal for boer farm turned down...
Ihave to think a new project for vilagers..
come in my mind are lemongrass and integration farm...
so which one is more profitable to the villagers?
have to make study on it...
survey must be done for location,budgets and marketing etc...
it takes time to do it all alone...
but for satisfaction, it must be done as soon as possible...

what a day....

LEMONGRASS ver 1.0

Cymbopogon is a genus of about 55 species of grasses, native to warm temperate and tropical regions of the Old World and Oceania. It is a tall perennial grass. Common names include lemon grass, lemongrass, barbed wire grass, silky heads, citronella grass , fever grass or Hierba Luisa amongst many others.

Lemon grass is widely used as a herb in Asian (particularly Vietnamese, Hmong, Khmer, Thai, Lao, Malaysian, Indonesian, Philippine, Sri Lankan) and Caribbean cooking. It has a citrus flavour and can be dried and powdered, or used fresh. The stalk itself is too hard to be eaten except for the soft inner part. However, it can be finely sliced and added to recipes. It may also be bruised and added whole as this releases the aromatic oils from the juice sacs in the stalk. The main constituent of lemongrass oil is citral, which makes up around 80% of the total.[1]
Lemon grass is commonly used in teas, soups, and curries. It is also suitable for poultry, fish, and seafood. It is often used as a tea in African and Latino-American countries (e.g. Togo, Mexico (te de limon)).
East-Indian Lemon Grass (Cymbopogon flexuosus), also called Cochin Grass or Malabar Grass, is native to Cambodia, India, Sri Lanka, Burma,and Thailand while the West-Indian lemon grass (Cymbopogon citratus), also known as serai in Malay, is assumed to have its origins in Malaysia. While both can be used interchangeably, C. citratus is more suited for cooking. In India C. citratus is used both as a medical herb and in perfumes.
Research also shows that lemon grass oil has antifungal properties.[2]
Citronella Grass (Cymbopogon nardus and Cymbopogon winterianus) is similar to the species above but grows to 2 m and has red base stems. These species are used for the production of citronella oil, which is used in soaps, as a mosquito repellent in insect sprays and candles, and also in aromatherapy, which is famous in Bintan, Indonesia. The principal chemical constituents of citronella, geraniol and citronellol, are antiseptics, hence their use in household disinfectants and soaps. Besides oil production, citronella grass is also used for culinary purposes, in tea and as a flavoring.


Palmarosa also called Rosha Grass and Indian Geranium (Cymbopogon martinii) is another species used in the perfume industry. It is a perennial clumping grass which grows to 150 cm with finer leaves and has a smaller bulbous base than the species above. The leaves and flower tops contain a sweet smelling oil which is used for the production of geraniol. It is also distilled into palmarosa oil and used in aromatherapy for its calming effect to help relieve nervous tension and stress.
Lemongrass in some cases has been used as a mild depressant for the central nervous system. It is also sometimes used as a weed barrier.
One particular alpine grassland variant known as juzai is a staple of Kyrgyz, Dungan and Uyghur cooking

FOOD TERMINAL AT KOTA BHARU

Fama Aims To Raise Agri Produce By 20 Pct Annually


KOTA BHARU, Feb 5 (Bernama) -- The Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority (Fama) aims to increase agricultural produce by 20 percent annually until 2010 to meet increased national demand, director-general Datuk Mohamed Shariff Abd Aziz said today.

Noting that RM20 million in revenue was generated by local entrepreneurs last year, he expected this to increase to RM30 million this year, telling reporters who met him here: "This is a big amount towards reducing dependence on foreign agricultural goods."

Mohamed Shariff said a wide variety of food items are being produced by the local small and medium industries (SMIs) for domestic consumption, and this should continue to rise each year spurred by the growing number of food producers.

He said Fama will increase production not only to meet domestic needs and reduce dependency on foreign imports but also for export.

Turning to the National Food Terminal (Teman, for Terminal Makanan Negara), he said a wide array of agriculture produce could be marketed via a cluster system managed by Fama.

Apart from serving as a sales centre for agriculture products which were previously marketed in a non-systematic approach, Teman also functions as a centre for processing such products.

On the entrepreneurs engaged in Tualang honey farming, Mohamed Shariff said some 100 of them in Baling, Pendang and Jerlung in Kedah could produce up to 200 metric tonnes of honey a year.

Each of them is now able to obtain a mean monthly income of RM2,000, he added.

-- BERNAMA