Profitability Analysis of Citronella Grass (Cymbopogon winterianus) Cultivation for Herbal Production: The Case of Wondo Genet District, Southern Ethiopia

Aromatic plants are plants that possess aromatic compounds, most of which are essential oils which are volatile at room temperature. They can be used as raw materials for extraction of essential oils which, in turn, are used in the flavor and fragrance industries, as well as the sources of spices, herbs, and other natural products such as traditional medicines, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, botanical pesticides, insect repellents, herbal teas/drinks, etc. Aiming to this, Wondo genet agricultural research center (one of the centers of Ethiopian institute of agricultural research)is responsible in doing research, promoting and coordinating aromatic, medicinal and bio energy plants at national level including other research activities on soil and water, livestock, forestry, and other food crops. In Ethiopia; other than the traditional aspect, the scientific aspect of aromatic and medicinal plants is not well known and little has been done on their economic contribution to households. Therefore Wondo genet agricultural research center has been done cost-benefit analysis for a selected aromatic grass namely Cymbopogon winterianus at wondo genet experimental site. The selected plant was planted based on its recommended spacing at wondo genet experimental site and the required data was collected. For the analysis net return to land (birr/ha) was used as a parameter. The analysis shows that, the selected aromatic grass provides the net return of which is 80417.32 birr/ha at fresh bio mass price of 1 birr. The NPV and BCR for Nardos grass was found to be: 76,858.5 and 2.3 respectively. Keywords: BCR, Benefit, Citronella grass/ Cymbopogon winterianus, Cost and NPV DOI: 10.7176/JNSR/10-8-05 Publication date: April 30th 2020