Recommendations

The following recommendations can be derived from the conclusions of this study:

1. Establish a national certification agency to reduce the costs of certification with the aim of strengthening the bargaining power of the private sector. Until the certification agency is in place, state subsidies for the certification of CFs concerned with lemongrass distillation can be used to foster the development of this sector.
2. Raise the scale of organic production of wild collected NWFPs including lemongrass by increasing the number of CFs in collaboration with the Social Forestry Division and the private sector represented by producer groups and marketing agencies.
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3. Raise competitiveness. First hand experience proves that prices paid for organic certified lemongrass oil must be competitive with neighboring countries (India, Nepal). Major efforts must be put into: (i) technology improvement to reduce fire wood consumption and make distillation more efficient, (ii) product development and (iii) marketing of products based on organic certified oil.
4. Further research is required to identify alternative and renewable energy sources for the distillation of oil and to enhance the overall efficiency of distillation equipment.
5. The sharing of benefits and improvement of the difficult working conditions require further attention from the communities and their partners.
6. In addition to marketing, the Lemongrass Cooperative should address resource management (and CF management plans) and the equality of the workers.

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