Scientific World

the area under oil palm increased from about 5,000 km2 in 1980 to more than 45,000 km2 in 2005 (Bangun, 2006). The continuing trend is strongly cor- related with the destruction of rainfor- est. Income from timber sales is used to finance the palm plantations (WWF, 2003; Greenpeace, 2007; Worldwatch Institute, 2010). In addition, the eco- physiological requirements of the oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) equal those of rainforest vegetation. Hence, oil palm

Photo: D. Oberländer production inevitably competes for land area with rainforest.

The advantage of oil palm is its aculeata – extraordinarily high oil yield poten- tial and resulting low production costs. However, due to forest destruc- a sustainable oil crop tion and drainage of peat lands, high amounts of CO2 may be emitted, even The South-American palm species Acrocomia aculeata has making greenhouse gas balances great potential as a sustainable source for vegetable oils negative in many cases (Greenpeace, 2007; Meyer & Dehue, 2007). Like- and provides economic opportunities for both smallholders wise, expansion of cropping area for and investors on less fertile crop- and grassland in sub-/ other conventional oil crops meets its sustainability limits, as no additional tropical regions with limited rainfall. Past years’ research suitable areas are available (e.g. rape- has made the ready for commercialisation. Now, pilot seed) or the crop also competes with forest or biodiversity protection (e.g. projects are needed to demonstrate its viability. soybean in South America; WWF, 2003). Secure supply of sustainably pro- At the same time, demand for duced agricultural products is a major plant oils is continuously growing, in challenge of the 21st century, in partic- the food, energy and chemical sector n Old crop with new potential ular with regard to vegetable oils. The alike. Global production of vegetable market of plant oils is dominated by oils has more than doubled during the Acrocomia aculeata is a thorny palm a few crops, notably oil palm (35 %), last two decades, with a particu- species native to South America and soybean (27 %), rapeseed (16 %) and larly strong increase for palm oil (see distributed in the tropics and subtrop- sunflower (9 %). Figure). Due to this development, ics from Mexico to . It reaches supply security of plant oils is World production of 13 most important vegetable oils from Jens Poetsch stressed even 1990 to 2010 PlanetRenew GmbH today (Oil World, Tübingen, Germany 2009), leading to price increases Daniela Haupenthal on the one hand Universidad Católica del Paraguay and to unsustain- Campus Itapúa, Hohenau, Paraguay able expansion of Iris Lewandowski, Dieter Oberländer oil crop produc- and Thomas Hilger tion areas on the University of Hohenheim other. In Indone- Stuttgart, Germany sia, the main pro- [email protected] ducer of palm oil, (Data source: FAOSTAT)

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Important fatty acid contents of Acroco- and kernel oils of both Acrocomia n Economic chances mia aculeata and Elaeis guineensis oils and Elaeis. By evidence, Acrocomia oils already meet a similar composi- With a total annual yield of more than Fatty acid Acrocomia Elaeis tion, and including genetic variation 2.5 metric tons (MT) of oil per hectare kernel and improvement, Acrocomia is fully and a range of valuable by-products lauric 41.0 % 48.2 % suitable to substitute Elaeis oils by Acrocomia is also economically inter- oleic 25.6 % 15.3 % quality. esting. The Figure on page 43 shows pulp the price development of palm kernel palmitic 29.0 % 44.3 % However, because the site require- oil and palm oil during the last decade. oleic 57.4 % 38.7 % ments of Acrocomia differ from those of linoleic 1.8 % 10.5 % the African oil palm, Acrocomia has the For all products derived from the potential for a sustainable expansion of Acrocomia oil palm there are exist- a height between eight and twelve plant oil production area. In addition, ing local or international markets. metres. Few relevant pests or patho- storage stability of Acrocomia is Most of these markets promise future gens are known. In contrast to Elaeis much higher than that of Elaeis fruits. growth and Acrocomia’s product diver- guineensis the genus Acrocomia shows This allows for decentralised produc- sity entails risk diversification. These are high plasticity with regard to environ- tion and storage. Its proven processing important characteristics for investors. mental conditions. Acrocomia species technology is comparably simple and But its small-scale viability also makes occur in temperate and tropical regions already cost-efficient at a scale of 5,000 Acrocomia a promising opportunity and thrive under annual precipitation metric tons (MT) of fruits per year. This for smallholders. In many tropical and from 1,000 to 2,500 millimetres (FAO, corresponds to a plantation area of subtropical regions large areas are culti- 1986). For a short time, even freezing about 250 hectares (ha), as an average vated with few crops in capital-intensive (–5 °C) is tolerated. yield of 20 MT of fruits per hectare and monocultures with disputable ecologi- year can be expected from the fifth year cal and long-term economic sustainabil- Acrocomia palms can tolerate fire after planting. ity. Product diversity is not established in and prolonged drought up to six industrial production as a rule. months (FAO, 1986). Excluding water The Figure below illustrates the pro- logging, Acrocomia grows on a diver- cessing steps and typical fractionation of In contrast, smallholders frequently sity of soils (Martin, 1976), where high Acrocomia fruits, important uses of the cultivate native that are rarely amounts of sand and organic matter products and the resulting revenues for grown in large scales due to lack of are preferred (Teixeira, 1996), and it each fraction. Market values are based domestication or standardisation. Acro- has been also cultivated on nutrient- on experiences in Paraguay and com- comia can even be grown in mixed poor sandy soils (Bohn, 2009). parable commodities. cultures and processed in small quan-

The plant has manifold traditional Processing, yield fractions, uses and revenues of Acrocomia products uses for food specialties, animal feed, (about 5% processing loss) fibre or medicine. But its main prod- ucts, oils from pulp and kernel, may boost its importance as an economically viable alternative to Elaeis guineensis that does not compete with rainforest or fertile land.

n Sustainable palm oil

In addition to its low costs, the oil palm Elaeis guineensis is favoured for its high contents of lauric acid in kernel oil used in foods and cosmetics and its low contents of polyunsaturated fatty acids in palm oil (= pulp oil), respec- tively. The Table above compares rel- evant fatty acid (FA) contents of pulp

42 Rural 21 – 03/2012 Scientific World

tities. This allows for its production in and marketed. Today, there are ten fac- small-structured, perennial and capital- tories that exclusively handle fruits from extensive cropping systems that improve semi-wild collections, i.e. no managed participation of small farms in rural plantations are available. Starting from development. In addition, Acrocomia is a this position, a cooperation between profitable crop for the less fertile soils of a University of Hohenheim (Germany), farm and can thus contribute to improv- Universidad Católica del Paraguay and ing land use efficiency. If established on the company Agroenergías SRL has degraded land, the plant may also serve been launched with the objective as a carbon sink and enrich the soil with of understanding and domesticating organic matter during its long produc- Acrocomia aculeata sufficiently well for tive lifetime of 60 to 70 years. a sustainable, commercial cultivation. Further partners have contributed to the

In summary, Acrocomia can help improvement of production processes Photo: D. Haupenthal diversify income sources of smallholders and economic opportunities. The fruit of the Acrocomia palm. as well as the portfolio of global plant oil production. There is only one disadvan- Significant progress has been made, tion costs, which is not different for Acro- tage: a temporal gap between invest- inter alia, in germination and harvest comia. Its fruits are not picked but fall to ment and profits. It takes five or six years technology, and in monitoring of wild the ground when mature. This requires until first harvest, and even small pro- Acrocomia plants. While the seeds natu- an efficient method for collecting them cessing facilities need capital. While the rally germinate within 12 to 60 months, quickly to avoid decomposition pro- years without harvest can be bridged it is vital for plantation establishment to cesses of the pulp. In cooperation with by alley cropping, e.g. with camelina, control emergence of the plants in tree agricultural equipment producers it was groundnut, castor or cassava, a com- nurseries and produce a predictable possible to identify and adapt simple mitment of investors or financial tools number of seedlings. After in-depth and cost-efficient tools for fruit collec- for cooperatives are desirable for the research, a treatment is available to tion that increase the harvest rate by a establishment of Acrocomia factories. achieve 50 per cent germination rate factor of five. within six weeks. With regard to a char- acterisation of fruits originating from Finally, demonstration plantations n Experiences from Paraguay various Acrocomia populations strongly have been established successfully. The varying but satisfactory results were requirements for scaling up Acrocomia Paraguay has a strong agricultural obtained. On average, the pulp of fruits production are thus met. sector. More than half of the country’s presented a fat content of 32.9 per cent area is characterised by the sparsely with a minimum of 24.2 per cent and a populated Gran Chaco in the west, a maximum of 50.4 per cent, whereas the n What is needed? hot, mostly dry and in parts marshy seed had a mean fat content of 58.3 per savannah landscape. Twenty-one per cent with a variation of 41–71 per cent In order to realise the potential it cent of the country is forested, but ille- (Haupenthal et al., 2011). takes two things: 1. larger scientifi- gal deforestation is still a critical issue. cally accompanied pilot plantations to Numerous smallholders in Paraguay Harvest frequently makes up for a increase know-how and provide secu- own old Acrocomia populations that large proportion of agricultural produc- rity for investors, 2. first movers that only need to be harvested. Such small- are ready to invest into a future market holders can be included in the value Price development of palm oils already now. chain merely by providing a market for 2002–2012 the fruits. In addition, they often have In the context of research and opti- idle land that can become profitable misation, the following issues should through planting Acrocomia, if a market be addressed: Breeding is necessary to perspective is given. optimise yields, agronomic handling and quality parameters. Extended tri- Paraguay is the only country where als with intercropping will improve land technical processing of Acrocomia fruits use efficiency and integration schemes is done. It has been practised since 1940 for smallholders. Resource efficiency (Markley, 1956), and in 2011 about (water, nutrients, and light) of Acroco- 5,000 MT of kernel oil was produced (Source: Worldbank; index mundi) mia still needs to be analysed in detail

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to optimise input-output ratios. There socio-economical sustainability strat- Production of plant oils from alter- is also need to analyse genotype x envi- egies are needed to let smallholders native crops may largely relieve the ronment interactions in existing popu- participate in the new markets, e.g. by environment and provide chances for lations to select genetic material for outgrower schemes. rural development. It is vital to dem- breeding without having to wait more onstrate success in order to realise this than five years for an initial screening. Finally, a screening of other oil crops potential in large scales. Acrocomia This is of particular interest as the genus should also be included in research aculeata will be a promising candidate is open- and cross-pollinating. efforts to improve agrobiodiversity to start with. effectively. For example, Brazilian native Further research is also needed in crops Pequi (Caryocar brasiliense) and fruit processing and bio-refining to Buriti palm (Mauritia flexuosa) have a A full list of references is available at evaluate the diversity of potential end yield potential in the same range as well www.rural21.com products and optimise value chains. For (Tickell, 2000). Photo: G. Schieber Skyfarming: Staple food for growing cities!? Megacities in Asia require millions of tonnes of rice every year to feed their growing population. Producing staple food, such as rice, directly within the city, would reduce transport requirements, would liberate large surfaces and make them available for other new ecosystem services. Skyfarming is a novel vertical farming approach to produce staple food in a multi-storey building that is largely independent of the environment and climate.

Professor Dr Joachim Sauerborn The United Nations predict for 2050. Thus, the urban areas of the Professor Dr Folkard Asch 2050 a global population growth up earth will absorb all of the expected University of Hohenheim, Institute of from today’s seven billion to reach population growth for the next four Plant Production and Agro-ecology in approximately 9.3 billion people decades. The rural population will the Tropics and Subtropics (United Nations 2011). Within the decrease by 300 million people within Stuttgart, Germany same period, the urban population the same period. The relation between [email protected] will increase by 2.6 billion, from 3.6 urban and rural population on a [email protected] (2011) up to 6.3 billion people in global scale is expected to change

44 Rural 21 – 03/2012