18 Jan 2011 10:01:37

Surprising by-products of green oil

Surprising by-products of a green oil plantation

With all the gathering interest in bio fuel crops, it is interesting to see some of the by-products the green oil industry is producing whilst farming the sustainable green oil crops.

The Millettia pinnata plantations in Queensland, Australia have many varied by-products, some of which would surprise even the most hardened advocate for bio fuel crops.

They utilise many natural ways to develop their crop yields and harness the experience of many years in the agriculture industry. They keep a huge number of bees on the plantation – as they manage to get the crops to flower for most of the year, thus virtually removing the old problem of seasons, this means the bees have a food source all year round. The abundant food for the bees allows them to produce a very high yield of honey, which is harvested and sold as one of the by-products of the green oil plantations. This approach removes the reliance on buying in bee hives to pollinate the crops, and removes some of the threats associated with colony collapse disorder which is threatening bee populations all over the world. It is thought that colony collapse disorder is being made worse by the practice of farms buying in bees for short periods of time to pollinate their crops – this could increase the spread of mites and viruses over much larger areas than the bees would normally cover, and allowing the bees to mix with other bees they would not normally come in contact with.

The plantations also provide cattle feed produced from the seed pods after they have been processed and the oil has been extracted. This biomass is called seed cake and is an extremely valuable source of cattle feed. The rest of the biomass is used to create biofertilizer; this is made up of prunings and cuttings from the Millettia trees themselves.

Another interesting and little understood by-product is not physical at all, but is of significant importance, as it provides them with an income above and beyond the produce they farm. It is in the form of incentive payments from various governments. Most governments around the world are setting themselves tougher limits on the amount of carbon that they can produce, and plantations, such as the one managed by Green Oil Plantations in Queensland, Australia, perform an important role for the government in achieving its targets. The plantations sequestrate a large amount of carbon from the atmosphere and the governments around the world offer cash payments for this function. There are also carbon credit schemes and trading allowed now around the world. This offers them an income from the plantations above and beyond anything they can produce themselves.

The last important by-product of the green oil plantations is what is called pasture seed – this is also used to produce cattle feed. The pasture seed is grown around the trees to help keep the moisture in the soil. This pasture seed is harvested and sold to cattle owners in the area.

Many sources of information regarding the green oil plantations neglect to mention these important by-products, and I think it should be more widely understood what some of the fringe benefits are to having these plantations. The plantations are a great source of and I think they will be here to stay for many years to come.

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