Biochar For Patchouli Plantation

Indonesia is famous for producing various essential oils, including patchouli oil, clove leaf oil and so on. The main use of essential oils is mainly for food, pharmaceuticals, fragrances (perfumes). The potential of this country to develop essential oils is very large due to climate factors, land area and soil fertility. World export-import statistics data show that consumption of essential oils and their derivatives has increased by around 10% from year to year. Of the 70 types of essential oils traded on the international market, citronella oil, patchouli, vetiver, ylang-ylang, cloves, pepper, and jasmine oils are supplied from Indonesia. Indonesia is the largest country in Southeast Asia producing essential oils and is among the top 10 in the world.

Patchouli production centers in Indonesia are in Bengkulu, West Sumatra, and Nangro Aceh Darussalam. The quality of Indonesian patchouli oil is known to be the best and controls 80-90% of the world's market share or the largest supplier of patchouli oil in the world. This patchouli oil comes from the distillation of dried leaves to extract the oil which is widely used in various industrial activities. Patchouli oil is used as a fixative or binder for other fragrance ingredients in perfume and cosmetic compositions. The area of patchouli planting reaches 21,716 ha spread across 11 provinces in Indonesia, and in 2008 about 2,500 tons of patchouli oil were produced.

Patchouli plants commonly cultivated in Indonesia are Aceh patchouli because the oil content is > 2% and the oil quality is patchouli alcohol (PA) > 30% higher than Java patchouli which has an oil content of <2%. Furthermore, with Aceh patchouli, there are three varieties of patchouli plants found in Aceh, namely Tapaktuan patchouli, Lhokseumawe patchouli, Sidikalang patchouli. The PA levels of the three varieties vary, namely: Tapaktuan (28.69-35.90%), Lhokseumawe (29.11-34.46%), and Sidikalang (30.21-35.20%).

Patchouli Oil Production in Sentra Province 2015-2020**)

One of the factors that support plant growth and optimal production is the availability of sufficient nutrients in the soil. The level of nutrient availability for patchouli plants must be optimal to obtain high growth and oil content. Patchouli is known to be very greedy for nutrients, especially nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K). Patchouli plants are among those that require quite a lot of nutrients, so that production continues to run optimally, fertilizer application is carried out very seriously. This is so that the level of soil fertility must be maintained optimally if we expect optimal patchouli agricultural production. Therefore, in the shifting patchouli cultivation system, there will be a very rapid decrease in land fertility which will damage the land.

Patchouli can be cultivated on dry land, thus the development of patchouli plants is very relevant to the potential of dry land which is quite extensive in Indonesia compared to rice fields. In fact, dry land is the most widely distributed sub-optimal land, which is around 122.1 million ha consisting of 108.8 million ha of acidic dry land and 13.3 million ha of dry climate dry land. The development of patchouli plants has a dual purpose, in addition to increasing farmers' income, it also increases the productivity of dry land which is widely spread in Indonesia.

To improve land quality, namely by applying biochar. The application of biochar to agricultural land functions as a soil amendment that can improve the chemical properties of the soil (pH, cation exchange capacity, total N, and available P), the physical properties of the soil (bulk density, porosity and the ability of the soil to hold water). Improvement in the quality of the chemical and physical properties of the soil has an impact on the availability of nutrients and water through the ability of biochar to retain nutrients and water. Ultimately, the addition of biochar has implications for increasing the productivity of patchouli plants. In the future, it is hoped that with the application of biochar, more suboptimal and degraded lands which can be restored and plants productivity increased.

Optimizing the use of dry land for food crop cultivation needs to begin with land rehabilitation efforts so that plants can produce optimally. Soil amendments that are cheap, readily available and can last a long time in the soil are expected to be able to trigger the rate of increase in dry land productivity. The potential for agricultural waste to be converted into soil amendments (biochar) in Indonesia is quite large. Biochar applications have been proven to improve the quality of physical and chemical properties of the soil, as well as increase water availability. Crop productivity also increases in line with the recovery of land quality.

Biochar can also be added during composting so that more nitrogen (N) content can be absorbed in the biochar. The higher the nitrogen (N), the better the compost quality will be. Total N is one of the macro elements needed by plants in large quantities, accounting for 1.5% of the dry weight of the plant. Nitrogen is useful in the formation of protein, a component of plant chlorophyll, and if morphologically N plays a role in the formation of leaves and stems of plants or the vegetative formation of plants. Phosphorus is an absolute nutrient needed by plants after nitrogen. Symptoms of phosphorus (P) nutrient deficiency are seen as the color of the plant becomes dark green or purplish green which is then followed by older leaves turning purplish. The addition of biochar and compost, in addition to increasing the productivity of patchouli leaves, can even increase the yield of patchouli oil from an average of 2% to 4% and the patchouli alcohol content of patchouli oil from an average of 32% to 40%.       

Bioeconomy Model for Indonesia Part 3

Essential oil is one of Indonesia's mainstay commodities. There are many essential oils that can be produced in Indonesia because of the tropical climate so that there are so many plants that can grow well in Indonesia. There are around 40 essential oils that can be produced in Indonesia. Essential oils are produced by the leaves, flowers, bark and even atsiri plant roots. Essential oils also vary from grass plants, shrubs to woody trees. This makes these plants can be planted anywhere depending on the condition of the land, and the desired essential oil products. And these essential oil plants are only seasonal plants and annual plants. The use of essential oils is also very broad, namely for perfumes, food, insect controllers and pharmaceuticals. In addition, the market potential of essential oils is also still very open. Cajuput oil is an example of essential oils that are very widely used, but many may not know that cajuput oil includes essential oils. Though cajuput oil can be found in almost every house in Indonesia especially those who have babies or small children. Ten essential oil products produced in Indonesia can be read here.

When compared to palm oil, the production is reported to reach more than 40 million tons / year and occupies an area of ​​12 million hectares, the production of essential oil is much smaller, which is only 5000-6000 tons / year. It is estimated that every year there will be an increase in export of essential oils by 10%. As well as palm oil which can be further processed into various oleochemical products, as well as essential oils, further processing into fine chemicals is very possible. Added value will be large enough if the essential oil is processed into fine chemical or various derivative products. The ironic thing in the essential oil industry in Indonesia is that Indonesia exports crude essential oils, but imports more derivative essential oils, reaching even more than four times, especially perfume products and food flavoring. The condition of the trade deficit should be changed so that the import of downstream products can be reduced gradually and if possible until it does not need to be imported again. After the deficit can be overcome, it can then spur exports even not only crude essential oil but its essential oil derivative products. So it is brief that Indonesia should not only export raw materials, then import finished products even in greater quantities.

The vastness of land available in Indonesia and the size of the market need is an interesting opportunity in the era of bioeconomy in sight. The variety of essential oils and the producing plants also attracts opportunities. Atsiri plantations can be promoted to various regions in Indonesia. The large plantations will also be more attractive by being integrated with large farms. Fertilizer needs for these plantations can be fulfilled from these farms, as well as increasing national meat production which is currently still heavily imported. For more about large plantations and large farms, please read here. One way to be grateful for the blessings of Allah SWT is to make use of unprocessed lands and even barren so that they become productive.

The technology for extracting essential oils is also quite simple by distillation. The distillation equipment is also almost all domestic products so it is relatively cheap. In practice, there are still many refiners that are still simple so that energy consumption is wasteful and the essential oil quality is low due to the use of refining materials below the standard. A number of improvements can certainly be done to further improve the efficiency of essential oil production, for example using an efficient boiler. Biomass waste, which is the material that has been taken by its essential oil, can be used as a distillation fuel of essential oil itself.