Energy Plantations: Why Calliandra (Calliandra Calothyrsus) or Gliricidia (Gliricidia Sepium)?

Since 1937, calliandra has been planted in Perhutani and wider areas along with reforestation programs and supporting firewood and animal feed. And also since 1974, Perhutani has distributed calliandra seedlings to forest farmers and used them as boundary plants between forest areas and rural areas or agricultural land. Calliandra cultivation at that time was mainly aimed at providing firewood and animal feed for people living in the forest, and reducing dependence on kerosene for cooking. Calliandra is used as a terrace plant (erosion control) with high slopes to strengthen the main plantation, for example with teak plantations, and also for soil protection purposes, because it can increase soil fertility through the ability of its roots to absorb nitrogen in the form of root nodules.

While the type of gliricidia plant is widely used as an edge plant or hedge plant to prevent large livestock from entering the forest. The wood is used as firewood and the leaves are used as animal feed. The wood can be harvested quickly, and pruning is also done with a fast process. So it can be said that, it is not recommended to plant new species that have unknown characteristics until there is adequate research activity on the species.

For example, acacia species are relatively fast-growing species but it is not widely known whether they can be used and managed with a sustainable coppice system. And also these types are not like calliandra and gliricidia plants, although easy to cultivate and harvest, but have not proven to be suitable for the application of short rotation coppice systems, and are also rarely planted on a larger scale.

Although calliandra and gliricidia are not native tree species in Indonesia, they have long been introduced, and can be found almost throughout the island of Java. Calliandra and Gliricidia are very popular in agricultural areas in most parts of Java. In addition, there have not been many reports describing the presence of pests and / or diseases associated with either species. Wood produced from calliandra and gliricidia plants has relatively good physical and chemical characteristics to be used as firewood or as raw material for wood pellets. Its calorific value is high and its ash content is low.

Indonesia as a tropical country even with the largest land area in Southeast Asia will have great potential to develop the energy plantation. Energy plantations are essentially energy sources or likened to batteries, which store solar energy in plants, the energy plantation, for more details can be read here. Although the development of various types of renewable energy continues to be accelerated, to store energy in large capacities will require a very large battery. The battery research is also estimated to take a long time and high costs, so that in the context of decarbonization, biomass energy can be used for cofiring and even fulfiring until the time the large battery can be applied.

Energy Plantation: Planting Calliandra and Gliricidia?

Each plant has an optimum location for its growth. Although it can grow if it is not at its optimum location, the results are not as good as the optimum location. Plants that are planted in their optimal locations will have great expectations for achieving optimal results, both wood, fruit, flowers and so on. When planting tea, apples, or edelweiss in the lowlands or even on the sea coast it is almost impossible to get the optimum results, maybe even wither and die. The selection of the best location that matches the characteristics of the plant is important to get optimum results from the cultivation.

Gliricidae on the seashore of Depok, Bantul, Yogyakarta

Red caliandra on the slope of Mount Merapi, Magelang, Central Java

Likewise, the energy plantation. In addition to the selection of plant species to be planted, the location of the plantation should also be considered in relation to the types of plants to be planted. Energy plantation generally use fast growing species and short rotation coppice (SRC) plants of leguminoceae because they have many advantages, among others, fast harvest age (on average only 2 years), maintenance is very easy, does not need replanting up to a dozen years, the roots can absorb nitrogen from the atmosphere so that it fertilizes the soil, its roots are also strong so that it can withstand erosion, plants are also very efficient in the use of water so that it can be planted in even barren areas, the leaves are for high nutritious animal feed, and the flowers are for honey beekeeping. In short to optimize the use of the land, the energy plantation is integrated with the livestock business.

Gliricidae & calliandra are 2 species commonly used as energy plantation plants. Gliricidae is more suitable for the lowlands to the coast, while calliandra for the highlands. The practice of calliandra planting is also widely practiced in high areas, whereas gliricidae in the lowlands. Temperature, humidity, soil fertility, rainfall also influence to produce optimal energy plantation products. Sri Lanka is an example of a country that has a lot of gliricidae, especially as a crop between coconut trees. Indonesia as a coconut island seduction country should also be able to do the same thing. Under these conditions, wood pellet production can also be done as well as reviving the integrated coconut industry (more details can be read here, here and here) and livestock, for the best land optimization.

Bioeconomy is defined as knowledge-based production and uses biological resources or living things to produce products, processes, and services in the economic sector within the framework of a sustainable economic system. With the pattern above, energy plantation can be created in many central locations coconuts in Indonesia such as Riau, Jambi, Bengkulu, Gorontalo and South Sumatra to optimize the potential of the bioeconomy. In addition, millions of hectares of idle, marginal, barren land and critical land can be revived and saved to bring profit. Even hardwood trees in HTI (industrial timber plantations) which take a long time and also sometimes require high social costs for maintenance can also be converted to fast-growing species and SRC plants with energy plantations. Untreated land will be increasingly damaged such as erosion, landslides to desertification so that the mission of saving the environment has also automatically become part of the energy plantation activities above.