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Recovering
wastelands to cultivate bio-fuel crops
By Chaudhry Kamran Naseer
Recent oil crises, issue of greenhouse gases
emissions and comparative advantage of renewability of bio-fuel over other
natural resources such as petroleum, coal etc has made bio-fuel more
attractive for the globe and bio-fuel feedstock production is being
considered essential for energy security in almost all the countries of
the world especially those having no significant oil and gas reserves.
Discovery of such type of oil-crops that does not
compete with food crops due to their non-edible oil seeds and ability to
grow in marginal lands have created an extra charm for bio-fuel producers.
By cultivating these crops not only significant bio-fuel can be produced
without affecting food production but wastelands can be recovered too.
Till now different non-edible oil crops have been found suitable and are
being grown at international level for these intentions, out of which one
is castor.
Castor-oil plant is easy to grow can be planted in
rich fields, upland, hillside, salted land and even field side. Quality of
resistant to drought, low demand on soil fertility, ability to grow in
marginal lands and significant oil contents has made the plant more
attractive for bio-diesel production.
Economic coordination committee (ECC) of the federal
cabinet has set the target of replacement of 5 per cent of annual diesel
consumption with bio-diesel by the year 2015, and 10 per cent by the year
2025. Cultivation of castor on large-scale in this respect can be helpful
in achieving the desired target due to its unique features.
Due to economic benefits and for use in bio-diesel
industry, castor seed is already being produced in more than 30 countries
of the world like China, Brazil, Paraguay, Ethiopia, Philippines, Russia,
India and Thailand etc. World's average annual production of castor seed
figures around 1250000 tons.
China is second largest world producer of castor oil.
Annual production of castor seeds and oil is 250,000 and 105,700 million
tons. There are about 20 big and middle size castor oil processing
factories in China, 8 factories among of them can process more than 10,000
tons per year.
Similarly in Brazil annual castor seeds and oil
production is 177,000 and 10,400 million tons. Castor crop is being
cultivated in Brazil since many years for bio-diesel production. Brazil
has 10 bio-diesel plants in operation and 40 under construction. To
accelerate the bio-diesel production and cultivation of crops, Brazilian
government passed legislation in 2006 to mandate a 2 per cent blend of
bio-diesel from oilseed crops like castor beans, soybean and sunflower in
all commercial sales of petroleum diesel by 2008, rising to 5 per cent by
2013.
European and U.S. farmers have created national and
international associations to promote castor oil as alternative fuel.
Bio-fuel enthusiasts in the island nation of Jamaica proposed cultivating
castor bean for the production of bio-diesel to be used as a fuel blend in
the transport sector. The government of Jamaica in 2007 proposed replacing
20 per cent of the country's energy demands with bio-diesel. Castor is
being farmed by 25,000 small African landholders on 7500 hectares in
Waletia and Gome. Our neighboring country India, by exporting castor oil
to European Union, USA, Japan, etc earns IR 7000 million per annum and the
largest producer of castor in the world.
Castor plant has a great value as a bio-diesel plant
due to following advantages:
Less water (300-350 mm rainfall) is needed for good
development and growth of castor plant as roots of the plant penetrate
deeper in the land (up to the depth of 1.5 to 3 meter). It not only
reduces the total input costs of cultivators which they pay in water
provision for cultivation of other crops but in the areas where water
availability is a problem crop can also be cultivated. Castor crop is an
uncomplicated crop that requires little attention during its growing
periods because castor plant faces fewer problems from pests' attacks and
does not need to save from animals due to presence of toxic protein called
ricin and toxic allergen often referred to as CBA (castor bean allergen).
Another extra feature of castor crop is that it is a
short time crop; 140 to 160 days are required to produce satisfactory
yields, this property helps farmer to cultivate other crops of their own
choice in rest of the period in any one year. Due to different varieties
available in the market like, C-3, US-1 and DS-30 etc, castor plant can be
cultivated round the year and two crops in a year are also possible.
Castor beans contain about 50 to 55 per cent oil by
weight. The oil obtained from castor seed itself contains a number of
fatty acids similar to those in vegetable or other plant oil use for
bio-diesel production.
No environmental pollution issues are associated with
castor oil burning. Castor plants capture around 10 tons of carbon dioxide
for every hectare planted, so burning castor oil does not result in a net
increase of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere. Bio-diesel produced
from castor oil with mixing petroleum diesel when used results significant
reduction in green house gases without affecting the performance of engine
of the automobiles.
The environmental benefit of using bio-diesel over
petroleum based diesel was emissions reduction of carbon dioxide,
particulates, and polyaromatic hydrocarbons without sacrificing vehicle
performance.
Castor oil is used as raw material in manufacturing of
lubricant in high-speed jet engines, bio-diesel, greases, paints and
pharmaceuticals etc, due to which it has high demand in international
market. So over production and reduction in price of crop will never be a
problem.
Fertilisers play an important role in replenishing the
soils to promote healthy and abundant crops. As castor seeds contain 26 to
30 per cent proteins after extracting oil residuals called cake can be
used as a good fertiliser for crops.
Due to these advantages, plant cultivation is
increasing world wide and many countries are expending castor cultivation
while some other is starting to cultivate.
In Pakistan castor crop is cultivated on approximate
3900 hectares with an average yield per hectare of 614 kg only. To meet
domestic requirements in automobile industry Pakistan spends millions of
rupees on import of castor oil annually. During the year 2004-2005 country
paid $350 million to India against import of castor oil. Further Pakistan
needs every year 10 million tons diesel for uses in different major
sectors of economy like transport, agriculture etc, mostly of which is
imported that further lead to increase trade deficit.
Pakistan climate is ultra suitable for the cultivation
of castor crop as in the country for more than seven month sun shine and
temperature available which is considered essential for maximum yield of
castor. Barren land figures are around 40 million acres in the country.
These wastelands can be converted into most economical viable lands by
distributing small pieces of land among farmers and cultivating bio-diesel
crops like castor.
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