Hay Production Urgency

In countries with four seasons, in winter, plants grow very slowly and even stop growing, so hay is used as a feed supplement, while in Indonesia in the dry season, grass is also limited forage, so to maintain livestock performance, additional feed such as hay should be used. By making hay, animal feed becomes durable so that it can be used as a source of feed when supply is reduced. Dry and compacted conditions make hay easy to store and use. In breeding-oriented farms, the quality of feed is usually not as good as in fattening-oriented farms. Breeding duration is longer than fattening is one of these considerations, because feed is the highest cost component in livestock business.

Due to various factors such as geography and labor conditions, a number of countries even have to import animal feed, especially the hay. The United States, for example, exports no less than 700,000 tons of hay annually to Japan, Taiwan and Korea. Leaves of leguminoceae such as indigofera, calliandra and gliricidia are potential sources of ruminant feed for the production of hay. Besides being planted specifically for the production of hay, these legumes can also be used as energy plantation or biomass plantation. The integration of energy plantation or biomass plantation with livestock businesses, especially the production of animal feed in the form of hay product, is a very interesting combination.

In addition to the export market, the domestic or local market is no less interesting. Areas with large areas of land can be used as centers for hay production, which is then distributed to a number of ruminant livestock centers. Hay is dry and compacted (densified) so that it is easy to distribute even over long distances. This is different from silage, which is wet, so it cannot be compacted like the hay. With the fulfillment of feed, the performance of ruminant livestock business can be maintained. In energy plantation or biomass plantation, wood can be processed into energy products such as wood chips, wood pellets, wood briquettes and sawdust charcoal briquettes, or non-energy products such as particle board. That means all parts of the tree can be utilized. 

Build a Large Capacity Wood Pellet Factory, 5k tons/month Up

A large capacity wood pellet factory has a greater risk than a small capacity wood pellet factory. At the factory the production target becomes an important benchmark in addition to the quality of the wood pellets, of course. The consequence is the use of reliable production machines so that the production target can be achieved. Whereas in small capacity wood pellet factories, usually with small production, with short working hours the quality of the production machines is not as good as for such large capacities, so the investment for purchasing machines is also cheaper. Ability to work continuously with long working hours, minimum downtime, as well as stable output and product quality. These high-performance production machines usually have high “flying hour” so they can be relied on. Although the price of the tool is more expensive, it is still an option because the goal is achieved, namely the quality and quantity of wood pellet products according to the plan.

In general, a manufacturer of production equipment or machinery and especially wood pellets does not make from A-Z or all of its equipment (complete line). In general, they are specialists in only one or several equipments, especially the pelletiser / pelleter because it is the heart of the wood pellet production. While other equipments is made by other companies. When the production equipment or machine manufacturer offers a complete line unit for the production of wood pellets, they mean that they have added a number of supporting equipments from several of their network vendors. So is it possible if you want to make your own wood pellet factory according to your own wishes or do customization so that the equipment from a number of vendors is assembled by yourself so that the wood pellet production line is complete? Of course you can, but it requires a number of special skills or is like making your own car with equipments or components from many vendors. For example, assembling a number of these machines and even though they are from well-known engine manufacturers, they may not provide optimal performance because do not know their characteristics including the compatibility.

Although basically to get the best level of performance with a high level of efficiency but looking for the best combination not an easy thing. The price factor is also another variable to get the best combination. Experienced machine providers or sellers can provide according to the buyer's wishes, especially with a limited budget but want excellent performance. The higher “the flying hour” or the experience of the machine provider, the better in providing the offer because they already know the characteristics of each of the equipment. Installation, commissioning, training to after sales service are the next considerations. In the large wood pellet industry, customization of equipment from various vendors making production equipment to the safety aspect is a common thing. Moreover, the selection of the equipment is also based on the experience of wood pellet factories that are already operating. Customization is indeed something unique that is much influenced by previous experiences.

Previous experience with a certain equipment manufacturers is an important experience to determine the performance or characteristics of an equipment. Of course, it is very difficult to know all the characteristics of the equipment available on the market because there are so many manufacturers of equipment providers, the location of the equipment providers and the ability to handle a wood pellet project. In addition to technical factors, human relations factors also play a role in this, especially the success stories of previous projects. Upgrading equipment is usually become an entry point for collaboration with other vendors, especially since the previous vendor did not have this capability, for example, to increase the efficiency and flexibility of raw material belt dryer used to replace rotary dryer due to better drying capabilities, or certain hammer mill that also have certain capabilities and so on. And especially if you already have long experience with them before.

The Urgency of Ex-Coal Mine Reclamation With Biochar

The large number of ex-coal mines that are not reclaimed causes various environmental problems and even life safety. There have been many casualties from the former coal mine pit. The simple logic should be that after the coal deposit is taken or extracted during the mining activity, the land is returned and repaired so that the quality is better than before the mining activity or at least the same, but not worse so that various environmental problems arise. The era of decarbonization is accelerating because of the driving force of climate change and global warming. Fossil fuels, especially coal, are starting to be abandoned, of course, including the coal mining activity itself. Meanwhile, the area of former coal mines which reaches millions of hectares is a lot of environmental problems today.

When the quality of the soil is improved so that it has high fertility then this becomes a very extraordinary potential so that a number of important activities can be carried out, such as agriculture, animal husbandry and forestry. With such conditions, the effort to self-sufficiency or food sovereignty is not impossible. Technically, it can be analyzed which of the agricultural, livestock and forestry sectors can reach the goal faster, namely food independence or sovereignty. But before going far and doing business on the ex-mining land, to be more specific what products will be made, the basic question is how to improve the condition of the damaged soil and the scale is also massive?

The application of biochar to the soil is a surefire solution in an effort to repair damaged soils. Depending on how severe the damage is, the characteristics of the soil type and the final quality level being targeted will determine the application or dosage of the biochar. In addition to improving the soil, the biochar application also absorbs CO2 from the atmosphere, thereby reducing the concentration of CO2 from the atmosphere or is a carbon negative scenario. Biochar buried in the soil becomes a carbon sink, similar to creating a conservation forest to absorb CO2 from the atmosphere. How much biochar is buried so that it can be calculated that the CO2 absorbed into the carbon sink can be sold on the carbon market and get carbon credit. Biochar itself is able to last in the soil for hundreds of years and is not decomposed for a long time. Even when the land has been repaired with biochar and then a conservation forest is made on it, the carbon credit obtained are double, namely from the application of biochar itself and from the conservation forest. But once again, of course, economic factors are another important consideration, so as above, after soil fertility is improved with biochar, there are a number of options for using the land. Of course which one provides the best economic benefits will be the choice.

Millions of hectares of land can be recovered so that its benefits will be maximized. Say, for example, that one million hectares of land can be recovered and then used for activities that support food security or self-sufficiency such as agriculture and animal husbandry, then how much output can be calculated. Even better if there can be a surplus of food production so that it can export. Or even in the longer term, the land is reforested into conservation forest, so how much CO2 can be absorbed by the forest plus the application of biochar. Of course very much. Then why have to build a food estate but have to clear forest land, while there are other better ways? Namely not only restoring but improving the condition of the land even better before the coal mining activity was carried out.

Calophyllum Tree and Coconut Tree

Calophyllum trees and coconut trees have something in common, namely that they can grow well in coastal areas, all parts of the tree can be used and bear fruit throughout the year. With the length of the coastline of Indonesia reaching 99,093 km, it is very potential to develop these two plants. The calophyllum tree has non-edible oil but its productivity is almost the same as palm oil or crude palm oil (CPO), so it is very potential for biodiesel production. Whereas palm oil trees are the largest producer of vegetable oil. Why not biodiesel production from Jatropha ? For more detailed answers, read here. Meanwhile, coconut trees which are well known as multi-benefit plants are certainly very strategic and have the potential to be developed, especially now that the coconut tree population continues to decline due to the lack of replanting of old coconut plantations. Unlike the calophyllum tree, all the results are not food products, many processed coconut products are in the form of food products. The need for processed coconut food products continues to increase along with the increasing population. Issues of food and energy can also be overcome at the same time with these two plants.

The productivity of calophyllum is around 30 years, while coconut is longer, reaching around 80 years. Calophyllum tree wood has a high economic value as well as coconut trees. When the productive period of the two plants continues to produce fruit and when productivity decreases or stops, the wood becomes the ultimate product of high economic value. When compared to palm oil trees when their productive age runs out, the wood or trunk in general is still a problem, not even a few are just left in the plantation because it is not economical to process further, more details can be read here. Meanwhile, other forestry woods usually take decades before they can be harvested and there are no other products besides the wood. Of course, this is quite economically difficult and sometimes even not feasible.

Photo is taken from here

Calophyllum trees and coconut trees are also easy and inexpensive to care for, unlike palm oil trees which require a lot of water and fertilizer. Both also support agroforestry on the coast, as well as being a wind breaker. This encourages faster economic growth in coastal areas, and even becomes a tourist destination. Furthermore, for agroforestry systems, one of them can be distinguished based on its function, namely into a production function and a protection function. Production functions such as food production, feed, fuel such as biodiesel, fiber, wood and others. Meanwhile, protection functions such as prevention from damage to environmental resources as well as maintenance of production system such as hedges, water retention, fire prevention, soil and water conservation. 

The choice of plant species is very important in making agroforestry patterns, because mistakes that occur will have a long and detrimental impact. Species that are suitable not only in terms of growth, economic value and adaptability to a particular environment, but also their ability to form an ideal growth structure when growing together with other species on the same land. The choice of this type is very dependent on the wishes of the land owner, the conditions of the place to grow, the economic value and the ease of cultivation.

Ruminant Livestock as a Solution for Logging Need (Tebang Butuh) in Community Forests

On average, community forest farmers only have narrow land for their forestry timber plantations, this makes it difficult for those who rely on forestry wood for their daily lives. Forest wood plants have a long cycle even for certain plant species up to decades. When there is an urgent need, for example a child wants to go to school, his child's marriage, and so on, the wood plant is cut down even though it is not yet time, which is commonly known as logging need (tebang butuh). Apart from that, the quality of the logs produced is also low, including the selling price as well as the quantity/productivity. The forestry industry with its installed capacity requires a large supply of logs of standard quality. The practice of logging needs (tebang butuh) to be avoided or minimized as much as possible so that optimal benefits will be felt by all parties, both community forest farmers and the forest industries.

To overcome the problems of daily life or urgent needs, ruminant husbandry can be the solution. The land around the main tree can be used as a place for grazing and legumes as a hedge as a source of forage. When the main tree such as albasia is still young, a number of plants such as vegetables and herbs (empon-empon) can still be planted and give good results. But when the main tree is big enough, the plant cannot tolerate shade, so its cultivation not effective even be a loss. Legumes such as calliandra, gliricidia and indigofera can be planted as a source of feed for ruminants (sheep, goats, cows or buffalo).

The ruminant's breeding cycle is faster than that of the forest trees. Types of livestock business that can be done such as breeding, meat production (fattening), milk production (milking) and even trading. Although export opportunities are open, especially sheep and goats, the domestic market is also large. For example, Yogyakarta needs up to 4000 sheep per month, especially for the cluster of satay stalls on Jalan Imogiri Timur, Yogyakarta Special Province. Not to mention the markets in Greater Jakarta and aqiqah. As for beef, Indonesia is also still lacking, which is currently supplied with buffalo meat from India, which accounts for nearly 60% of national needs. Farms like this can be a surefire solution to the problem of logging need (tebang butuh) that hinders the development of community forests at this time. The area of community forest also cannot be underestimated, even in some areas the area of community forest is larger than state forest. Nationally, Indonesian people's forests are estimated at 35 million hectares, while state forests reach 128 million hectares.

Biochar and Land Reclamation of Ex-Coal Mines

Reclamation of ex-coal mining land is the obligation of the mining company, but often this is not done properly for various reasons. These are mainly due to weak rule enforcement and light sanctions. With the area of ex-coal mines that has reached millions of hectares and the reclamation efforts are needed, but the realization in the field is still very minimal, making environmental damage even greater. The thing that can encourage efforts to improve the ex-coal mining land is the profit or economic factor that can be obtained. This means that if the reclamation effort also bring economic benefits - in addition to environmental benefits, of course - then the coal companies will also be happy to do so. So what activity is it?

The photo is taken from here

After the coal deposit is taken, the top soil should be returned to the land. The basic thing that needs to be done is to improve the quality of the soil so that it can be used for planting various crops. By improving soil quality, besides soil fertility can be restored and even increased, it also includes isolating (immobilizing) a number of harmful elements from the ex-coal mining land. Creating a profitable and sustainable business activity is the next step. The improved soil can then be planted and legumes are the best choice, this is because legumes are other than pioneer plant types with high survivability, strong and deep roots that prevent erosion, root nodules from azetobacter symbiosis by binding nitrogen from the atmosphere which fertilizes the soil also provides many other benefits. Ruminant husbandry is a profitable and sustainable business activity, because it mainly utilizes the leaves of the legume plant as a source of feed. The livestock manure can also be used to further improve the health and quality of the soil so that soil fertility continues to increase and is maintained. The wood from the legume plantation can also be used for productions namely briquettes, charcoal briquettes and even wood pellets.

As a basic thing and the entry point for the above business is improving the quality of the land or soil of the ex-coal mines. There are a number of ways to do this, but the use of biochar is one of the best options. With biochar not only increases the pH or acidity of the soil so that many nutrients will be absorbed by plants better and soil microbial activity to decompose organic matter is more active, but it is also able to absorb a number of harmful chemical elements in the soil, increasing soil organic carbon that can last hundreds of years and also absorbs the greenhouse gase from atmosphere. The biochar can be made from a number of agricultural, forestry and agro-industrial wastes, such as wood chips from logging or from palm oil mill waste such as empty fruit bunches and fiber. A number of areas in Kalimantan are not only rich in coal deposits and also currently many of these ex-coal mining lands are abandoned, as well as a lot of biomass materials such as forest waste and palm oil mill waste for the production of biochar.

In order to reduce CO2 emissions in the atmosphere, biochar is also able to absorb CO2 from the atmosphere (carbon sequestration) and is a carbon negative scenario. The biochar applied to the soil is a carbon sink, as an option for carbon credit other than carbon offset. In the current era of decarbonization, efforts to reduce CO2 level in the atmosphere are important. In Indonesia, where there is still a lot of forest land, carbon credit can be obtained from the absorption of CO2 by the trees in the forest, so that the forest acts as a carbon sink as well. But in other countries where the use of fossil energy is very large or massive, they must reduce the adverse climate impacts caused by burning fossil energy materials, especially coal. They can buy carbon credits on this biochar application.

 

Coal is the most widely used fossil energy for power generation in the world today and Indonesia is one of the producers of such coal. Although in the near future the use of coal will be reduced and in some countries it will be stopped altogether, but the negative impacts of coal mining are still many, damaging and even endangering the environment. This is an urgency to improve the land or ex-coal mining land which is estimated to reach 8 million hectares in Indonesia. On the one hand, coal power plants can buy carbon credits for biochar applications like the scheme above. Palm oil mills on the other hand also produce a lot of solid waste, especially empty fruit bunches (EFB) that can be used for the production of biochar. These big companies could collaborate to solve climate problems due to the increasing concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere. To this day, it is reported from the Mauna loa observatory, in Hawaii, United States that the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere has exceeded 400 ppm or there is still an increase of about 2 ppm every year, even though the global target is to decrease the concentration to only 350 ppm.

Calophyllum Inophyllum Plantation Don't Lose With Palm Oil Plantation

Calophyllum inophyllum has high commercial value wood. Forests in Indonesia contain around 4000 species of trees, with 267 of them being traded. Wood from trees of the family Dipterocarpaceae is the most important group such as meranti, keruing, kapur and mersawa. In addition, a number of tree species are also quite important, namely koompasia, palaquium, dyera, callophyllum inophyllum, octomeles sumatrana and gonystylus bancanus (ramin). Callophyllum inophyllum wood is rather light to medium and soft, but dense, wrinkled, to the point of not being able to split. Callophyllum inophyllum wood has two colors, namely gray or pseudo-yellow and brick red with finer veins and straighter fibers. Callophyllum inophyllum wood is classified as durable class II and very durable in sea water. Callophyllum inophyllum wood including commercial wood is often used as boards, beams, poles, flooring, boats, canoes, crates and tables, shipbuilding, railway sleepers, household furniture and so on. Fishing communities on the coast usually use the wood to make boats.

Until now, the potential for callophyllum inophyllum in Indonesia is still not known with certainty, but from the interpretation of Landsat7 ETM satellite imagery in 2003 on all coasts in Indonesia it is estimated that the natural stands of callophyllum inophyllum reach a total area of 480,000 hectares and most of it (about 60%) is in forest areas. Callophyllum inophyllum stands generally grow in mixed forest types, in natural forests with types of ketapang, malapari, waru laut, keben, pandan laut and others. While in planted forests, callophyllum inophyllum grows with acacia, mahogany, eucalyptus, melinjo, jackfruit, duku, durian and others. Callophyllum inophyllum grows closest at a position of 50-1000 meters from the shoreline with very variable tree densities. Nyamplung tree height can reach 25 meters and a trunk diameter of 1.5 meters.

Calophyllum inophyllum oil production, especially for biofuel production, can be done while waiting for wood production. This biofuel production has even become the main activity of this callophyllum inophyllum cultivation because it can be done for decades until finally the productivity of plants decreases, trees are cut down and replaced by new plants. The yield of calophyllum inophyllum oil, which is almost the same as crude palm oil or CPO, which is 5 tons/hectare and does not compete with edible oil, makes calophyllum inophyllum oil very potential to be developed. Biodiesel from calophyllum inophyllum oil also provides an answer to the failure of the jatropha biodiesel program some time ago, for more details read here. With Indonesia's coastline reaching 99,093 km, the production of biofuel from calophyllum inophyllum will be very large as will wood and its processed products. If we compare it with palm oil plantation, when their productive period is over, logging and utilization of palm oil trunks cause many problems, even many are just left in the plantation. Leaving oil palm trunks in the plantation until they are rotten turns out to also cause its own problems, namely as a place for growing larvae that damage coconut trees, read in more detail here. This is of course very different from the calophyllum inophyllum tree, which when the tree is old, the quality of the wood gets better, as well as the selling price. 

In addition, various agroforestry practices can be carried out on the calophyllum inophyllum plantation because it can be mixed-culture and other functions as wind breaker so that other plants will also be protected. The practice of mixed plantation or mixed culture can hardly be done on palm oil plantations so that the output is only one kind, namely fresh fruit bunches (FFB). Meanwhile, with mixed plantations, the output can also vary from food crops such as fruits, tubers and so on. The maintenance costs, especially fertilization, are also very large in palm oil plantations and this is the highest cost component in palm oil plantation operations. To continue to maintain its level of performance, of course, the need for fertilizer for oil palm plantations is very large, while in calophyllum inophyllum plantations it is smaller. The need for water for palm oil plantations is also very large, while in calophyllum inophyllum plantations it can even remain productive on dry soils. 

Of course all efforts depend on the goals to be achieved. Likewise with this calophyllum inophyllum cultivation. In addition to having many advantages compared to palm oil plantations as described above, the calophyllum inophyllum tree also has a number of advantages compared to other wood-producing trees. For wood-producing trees, such as teak, it takes a minimum of 20 years and during that time there is almost no income, so it is economically difficult. While in calophyllum inophyllum seeds are produced throughout the year as the raw material for the biofuel. Palm oil plantations are currently estimated to have reached around 15 million hectares with one of the oil being allocated for biofuel or especially biodiesel, so that if the calophyllum inophyllum plantation is developed, all biodiesel from calophyllum inophyllum oil can be made so that the palm oil plantation does not need to be expanded anymore. The existing calophyllum inophyllum plantations were developed and intensified so that they were sufficient for the required biodiesel production. In addition, the need for wood for various purposes can also be met from the calophyllum inophyllum plantation.