Introduction

The castor oil plant, Ricinus Communis, is a species of flowering plant in the spurge family, Euphorbaceae. Its seed is called castor bean and it is the source of castor oil. Although castor is indigenous to the Egypt, Ethiopia and India, today it is widespread throughout tropical regions such as China, Brazil and Thailand.

Although the seeds are extremely poisonous, they are the source of numerous economically important products, such as lubricant for aerospace industry and are one of the earliest commercial products. To many people the castor plant is just an overgrown, undesirable weed and yet it produces one of neture's finest and economically important natural oils.
Global castor seed production is more than 1.5 million tons per year. The major producing countries are India (with over 60% of global yield) follow by China, Brazil and Thailand.


WHY GROW CASTOR ?

· Short harvesting period of 120 days.

· Minimum 3 harvests per annum

· Average production of 8 MT per acre/annum

· Perennial crop of minimum 5 years

· A buy back Agreement

· Castor plantation can improve soil and environmental quality



COMPARISON BETWEEN CASTOR AND OIL PALM

Oil Palm

JATROPHA

CASTOR OIL





Planting Cost per Acre

7,000

5,000

5,000





Nursery Period

9 Months

2 Months

0





Flower & Fruiting

3 Years

6 - 9 Months

4 Months





Yield per Acre /Annum

14 MT

4 MT

8 MT





FFB / Seed Price

USD150 per MT

USD200 per MT

USD375 per MT





Oil Extraction Rate

20%

32%

50%





Crude Oil Price

USD750 per MT

USD 800 per MT

USD1,500 per MT




Thursday, July 22, 2010

Local Castor Plant at Tanjung Aru, K.K.


I saw these 3 bushes a far and decided to drive nearear after noticing the leaves
The Local Castor seeds, the young one (green) and ripe dried (brown)

My girls Pearl (red) & Crystal (blue) was so amazed to see the bunch of young local Castor seeds that I brought back from Tanjung Aru as Castor has been our household topic lately.
Posted by Cletus Fernandez at 12:05 AM

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