Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Oil and Biofuel Crops
There are a wide range of oils produced from crops which include castor oil (
Rici-
nus communis
), coconut oil (
Cocos nucifer
a), cotton seed oil, shea butter (
Vitellaria
paradoxa
) and oil palm.
Oil palm (
Elaeis guineensis
), native to West Africa, is the major source of cook-
ing oil produced from processed kernel and mesocarp of this monecious palm. It
accounts for 60 % of the traded vegetable oil. Oil palm is a tropical species and, as
such, production occurs throughout the tropical regions of the world. World pro-
duction in 2010 was estimated at 217.9 Mt produced from 15.4 Mha (Table
8.1
).
Indonesia and Malaysia are the major producers, followed by Nigeria and Colombia
(Anon
2011
; Soh et al.
2008
). Additional production occurs in a number of West
African countries, Central America and Brazil. Smaller production areas occur in
Thailand, China and the Philippines. The bulk of consumption occurs in China,
India and Europe. Oil palm is the quintessential plantation crop (Verheye
2010
).
The vast bulk of production occurs in the developing world where low wages allow
for a large labour force and hand harvesting. Plantations in Indonesia and Malaysia
vary in size, often as large as 5,000 ha with production feeding a central process-
ing plant. Oil palm production is controversial with reports of destruction of virgin
rainforest, environmental degradation and relocation of native communities by gov-
ernment sanctioned development projects (Colchester et al.
2007
; McCarthy and
Cramb
2009
; Wilcove and Koh
2010
; Irawan et al.
2011
). Oil palm is also produced
as a biofuel in some locations; however the high value of the oil for food production
currently makes this economically unsound.
Coconut (
Cocos nuciferia
), the “tree of life” (Foale
2003
) plantations are the
foundation for the production of copra (dried coconut flesh). Coconuts are primar-
ily produced in Asia (Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Philippines, south India, Sri Lanka,
Malaysia and Thailand), Oceania (PNG, Fiji, Tonga, and Vanuatu), Latin America
and Africa. Some 59 Mt of nuts are produced from 11.3 Mha (Table
8.1
). Coconut
oil produced from copra is no longer dominant as a vegetable or industrial oil,
however there is a resurgence in production for virgin coconut oil derived from
cold pressing of the coconut meat (Foale and Robeling
2006
). Coconut based
agrosystems are diverse and are often intercropped with a diversity of species
(Nobre Lages
1996
). With the increasing scarcity of fossil fuels and resultant
price increases, oil crops are being increasingly utilised as a replacement “bio-
fuel” product. Coconut oil is also converted into biofuel, particularly on isolated
Pacific Islands where fuel oil prices are restrictive due to the high cost of trans-
port. Coconut oil can be used directly in standard compression diesel engines with
modifications to allow for its increased viscosity, mixed with diesel or converted
to biodiesel (Anon
1983
; Walton
2008
).
