Optimizing Calliandra Energy Plantations for Energy, Food and Feed, Is It Possible?

Calliandra energy plantations as the name implies are indeed prioritized or for the main purpose of producing energy from biomass, either wood pellets or just wood chips. This is because wood is the main product of the energy plantation, while leaves and flower nectar are by-products or are considered waste from the wood pellet or wood chip business. However, if the use of leaves for animal feed and flower nectar for honey production has an economic value that approaches or even exceeds the wood pellet product, then it will be a different story. Calliandra leaves, like indigofera leaves and glicidia / gamal leaves, have a high protein content, while this protein element is the most expensive source of nutrition of all the elements in animal feed products, while calliandra honey is one of the best quality honeys compared to other honey products such as acacia honey, kapok honey, rubber honey and so on.

Synchronization between honey and wood production is very important in the energy plantation to maximize profit. In honey production, the first time the calliandra flowers and the next flower cycle are very important. Don't let it be that just because of ignorance of the flower cycle, many benefits that should have been obtained are lost. In addition, for sustainable and optimal honey production, not only calliandra nectar is needed, but also a number of certain plants as support, both for additional bee feed and for making beehives. When all that is available is calliandra nectar, honey production will be maximized but will not be sustainable because the bee colony will shrink and then disappear. This is the importance of plantation engineering with a number of species or types of certain plants if honey production is also an important product in the calliandra plantation-based business.

Calliandra leaves in abundance will automatically be obtained when the calliandra trees are cut down or harvested. The calliandra leaves need to be separated from the wood and twigs to be used for animal feed. Animal feed products from calliandra leaves can be in the form of fresh leaves or processed leaves in the form of pellets, or hay. This makes it possible to have a leaf pellet factory in addition to the wood pellet factory. With an estimated leaf volume of 1/4 of the wood but the price of leaf pellets is around 3 times the price of wood pellets. So the profit from utilizing leaves into pellets (leaf pellets) is very large, estimated at 1/2 to 3/4 of the wood pellet turnover. This is certainly a serious consideration and cannot be ignored.

A comprehensive understanding of calliandra plantations for energy, food and feed is indeed very important to maximize profits from calliandra plantation-based businesses. This will encourage the calliandra energy plantation to grow further. In addition, the legality aspect and land selection for the location of the calliandra plantation. This is because, especially for wood pellet products in general, it is for export orientation and especially for Japan and Europe, environmental or sustainability certification is very important and even required so that the legality aspect (which is clear and clean) and land selectivity according to its designation including the history of the land are also very important. So optimizing calliandra energy plantations for energy, food and feed is possible if the terms and conditions are met.

Calliandra Honey from Caliandra Energy Plantation

Calliandra honey can be said to be one of the best honeys in the world. The quality and taste of calliandra honey are above other honeys such as rubber honey, acacia honey and cottonwood honey. But it turns out that the production of calliandra honey is not as easy as other honeys. A number of things need to be done so that the target of getting the quality and quantity of calliandra honey can be achieved, including engineering or enrichment of energy plantation plants and selection of appropriate honey bee species. This is why before planting calliandra in the energy plantation, it is necessary to discuss it first with a honey bee farming expert, if indeed the energy plantation will also produce honey as a side product or additional product, in addition to the main product in the form of wood pellets from its wood. Making engineering or enrichment of energy plantation plants is much easier before planting activities are carried out than after the energy plantation has been completed or is producing.

Factors that meet the sustainability of a farm or bee colony are important things that must be met by beekeepers or honey producers. These factors include the availability of nectar, pollen, resin and water (abbreviated: neporea). The balance of these factors needs to be created to maintain sustainability and also optimize honey production from the honey bee farm. Of course, the specific needs of each factor are also closely related to the type of bee species being farmed. For example, for the availability of abundant pollen but minimal nectar sources, honey production will also be minimal, or vice versa, abundant nectar sources but minimal pollen sources, then honey production is abundant but the bee colony will shrink or decrease or even become extinct, meaning there is no sustainability. Certain bee species such as the trigona family even require more resin sources than other honey bee species. Pollen is a source of protein for bees so it is vital for the life of the bee colony. Calliandra is a source of nectar, so it is not sufficient to rely on food sources from only one plant species.

By maximizing the potential of the plantation, meaning not only processing the wood, maximum profit will be obtained. With such high quality calliandra honey, it would be a shame if it was not utilized. Calliandra honey production will even provide significant additional profit because it is estimated to produce 1 ton of honey per year from 1 hectare of calliandra plantation. And currently Perhutani (Indonesian state-owned forestry company) has a wider honey production area. Based on API (Indonesian Beekeeping Association) data, Indonesian honey needs reach 15,000 tons-150,000 tons per year. Of that amount, 50% of the needs are supplied from China. With the increasing development of calliandra energy plantations, especially for wood pellet production, which are managed by the government and private sector, it is hoped that it will also increase Indonesian honey production.

The main problem of beekeeping is the availability of food for bees or flower nectar. Calliandra, which is a fast-growing plant and is cultivated massively, will significantly boost honey production, even targeted to increase threefold (300%) in the next 5 years. Moreover, with nine of the world's eleven honey bee species living in Indonesia, this country should be able to meet its own needs. This is so that honey imports can be reduced and Indonesia will be able to export honey. In addition to honey, bee farming will also produce several derivative products, namely royal jelly, bee pollen, bee wax and bee venom.

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.

Startup Business Based on Energy Plantation

Startup business is a trend today and not a few, especially young people who are very interested in this business pattern. Information technology in the form of the internet has made it easier to run the startup business. Today we can see that with this startup pattern a number of large companies have existed and stood by selling their products and services. Innovative products that can provide accurate solutions to the various problems that make the company exist and continue develop. But it turns out that running and developing a startup business is also not easy and without obstacles. The fact is that up to now the possibility of startups appearing and being able to survive is only 8%, meaning that out of 100 startups, only 8 startups can last until the second year. Even if it is counted until the fifth year, only 2 startups can survive. But the fact above is not an obstacle so that it decreases the enthusiasm to continue pursuing the  startup business. On the contrary, it becomes an encouragement about the need for knowledge and sufficient provision to even improve the condition.

Similar to business in general, a startup business will always be able to survive and develop if it continues to be needed by consumers. There are a number of fundamental commodities that will always continue to be needed including food and energy. Food and energy needs are always directly proportional to the human population. Renewable energy, especially biomass-based, which is also one of the focuses of this blog, has bright prospects in the future. Energy plantations can be the basis for a startup business. Energy plantations beside having great benefits for the environment, they also have economic and social benefits. In addition to the fact that there is currently no energy plantation implementation that has yet to work professionally, it needs acceleration. In the early stages of startup, it can focus on commodities that are easy and needed by the market, such as the scheme below.

Startup Business Based on Energy Plantation Phase I

Energy plantations have a number of outputs that can be commercialized or sold, namely wood for wood pellets, leaves for animal feed and flowers for honey production. A number of outputs or yields will clearly maximize the benefits of the energy plantation. The extent of idle land, critical land and a number of unproductive land that reaches tens of millions of hectares is a challenge for the implementation of the energy plantation. The more land is utilized and the higher the level of profits obtained, of course, the more investors invest in this sector. The meat self-sufficiency program from domestic production is also increasingly helped and can be accelerated by forage from the leaves of the energy plantation. The energy plantations use plants such as leguminoceae (legumes) such as calliandra and gliricidae, with roots that are symbiotic with azetobacter microorganism so that it can bind nitrogen from the atmosphere making the leaves rich in protein to become nutritious feed for livestock.

Startup Business Based on Energy Plantation Phase II

In stage 2 such a scheme above the benefits can be further increased. This is because the company does not only produce raw materials used by other industries but furthermore, that is, produce finished products that are ready for consumption. Even so the length of the chain of production processes indeed makes the responsibility of producers increasingly large and complex. Startup businesses that have experienced or have surpassed phase 1 schemes will usually find it easier to run phase 2. The market for this stage is also mostly for exports because up to now the domestic market is not ready, for example wood pellets for fueling fluidized bed technology combustion. PKS (palm kernel shell) are now widely used for the power plant, and because availability is also limited it will be very possible in the future era of wood pellets from the energy plantation as a replacement.

The market for biomass fuels, especially PKS and wood pellets is very open especially in the export market. Japan and Korea are the biggest consumers of biomass fuels today for the Asian region, for more details about the characteristics of the Japanese and Korean markets can be read here. Whereas Europe with the RED program (Renewable Energy Directive) II in 2030 targets that almost 1/3 of energy consumption derived from renewable energy with biomass fuel gets a portion of 80%. The amount is certainly very large, with the current conditions Europe still needs around 5 million tons of wood pellets even though RED I, which applies until 2020, only targets 20 percent of energy consumption from renewable energy and biomass to get a portion of 80 percent.

Designing Energy Plantation for Wood Pellet Production: Don't Choose the White Calliandra!

Day by day more and more parties are interested in the production of wood pellets from the energy plantation. The calliandra energy plantation is the choice of most prospective producers of wood pellets. This is because plants can grow fast and coppice has many advantages, including high woody biomass productivity, does not need to be rejuvenated every year and easy maintenance. And it turns out that the interest in making the calliandra energy plantation has also begun to spread to various regions in Indonesia and even abroad. By making energy plantations, it does have many advantages, especially in the supply of raw material will be more guaranteed and large quantities of raw materials achieved. Some of the advantages of wood pellet production from the energy plantations also can be read here. Besides calliandra, gliricidae ranks second for choice of energy plantation plant species. Even Sri Lanka will soon produce wood pellets from gliricidae, for more details, please read here.

Designing energy plantations for wood pellet production in large capacity is not a simple job. For the global scheme, you can read here. One thing to note is the selection of calliandra seeds themselves. Erroneous selection of calliandra seeds will be fatal, especially for large plantations. It turns out that there are two types of calliandra, namely red calliandra and white calliandra. Red calliandra is suitable for energy plantation and wood pellet production. Why is that? This is because there are several advantages of the species of red calliandra compared to white calliandra, namely first, the ability of coppice for red calliandra can be up to 15-20 years then rejuvenated (replanting), while white calliandra is only about 5 years old for coppice every year and must be rejuvenated. Second, red calliandra wood has a calorific value of more than 4000 kcal / kg while white calliandra is lower than 4000 kcal / kg. So when making the calliandra energy plantation is not automatic any calliandra seed can be used, but it must be selected and the red calliandra selected.

There is one more thing that is usually missed by the parties who will produce wood pellets from the energy plantation, namely optimizing the energy plantation. Of course, to optimize the growth of energy crops fertilizer is needed and if integrated with sheep, goat and cattle farms, then besides meat production it will also produce fertilizer. Though also calliandra leaves are also very good for animal feed because of its high protein content, due to the roots of the calliandra plant which is able to bind nitrogen from the atmosphere. Even if the farms developed are also large, the biogas can also be made of the manure. In addition honey bee farms can also be added, and even calliandra honey, including high-quality honey. For more details about large plantations and large farms, please read here.