Meeting the national vegetable oil demand: Can Madhuca (‘Mee’) oil contribute?

 

 

by Dr Parakrama Waidyanatha- 2022/01/2

The President, earlier this year, regrettably and without an in- depth examination of issues at stake, decided to ban import of palm oil totally, and expand the cultivation of coconut to meet the total local vegetable oil demand. It was also decided to uproot the existing oil palm cultivations amounting to some 12,000 hectares. The ‘grapevine’ suggests he was misguided by a former chairman of a coconut institution, that his wife died of cancer having consumed palm oil, that lead him to this decision! The President should have consulted the Coconut Research Institute and other experts in the field before rushing into such a decision. There is no published research evidence supporting an oil palm- related cancer risk.

However, within weeks the government was forced to retract from banning palm oil and the associated gazette notification following objections from the Ambassadors of Malaysia and Indonesia, two countries we import palm oil from. Their concern obviously would have been the wrong impression given, by the ban, to the world at large about palm oil, apart from a possible reprisal by the two countries by way of banning import of garments from Sri Lanka. Imported palm oil accounts for 74% of our current total vegetable oil supply, whereas the local coconut oil production satisfies a mere 13%; and we also import 11% of our coconut oil needs Table 1). So the local coconut production can never meet our total vegetable oil demand.

The ban also instigated ‘Solidaridad’, an international civil society organization operating across five continents, striving, amongst other things, for fair trade and agricultural production that respects people and the planet, to launch a study on the local palm oil ban, reasons for it, and its consequences on the local vegetable oil availability. A report, in fact a book, under the aegis of this organization written by local and foreign experts in the relevant subjects is to be launched on January 19, 2022.

Potential for expanding coconut cultivation

There is no comprehensive study on the actual land available for expansion of coconut cultivation. A Coconut Research Institute study based on soil maps reveal the total extent suitable for coconut including the extent already in coconut to be about 1. 86 million ha; the current extent being about 470,000 ha. How much of that land is physically available for coconut is not known; and even if a part of it is available the question is whether the landowners would use it for coconut cultivation or other purposes. Furthermore, global warming and associated weather changes can seriously constrain coconut growing in the Intermediate and Dry Zones.. A recent finding of the CRI is that increased ambient temperatures in the dry zone, especially during dry periods, inhibit pollen germination leading to poor fruit set, limiting the potential for expansion of coconut cultivation in the area.

On the other hand, of the total paddy cover of 158,000 hectares in the wet zone some 57,000 ha are left fallow.. On the whole, cultivation of paddy in the wet zone is uneconomic as evident from the Table 2, largely because of increasing input costs, especially fertilizer and labour, and poor yields.

It is therefore worth considering cultivation of coconut, oil palm or other suitable crops such as vegetables in those soils, after draining them, and collecting the water in ponds at the bottom of the slope for fish culture.

On the other hand, the potentiality of growing coconut in tea as a shade crop too should be explored, as seen in the picture below, and many tea growers in the wet zone are already resorting to it. However, coconut can be planted in tea only with new or replanting of the tea. Therefore, only limited tea lands should be theoretically available at the current replanting rate of 1% or less.

Coconut as our oil crop

Until about the late 1980s, the coconut production was adequate for our culinary consumption vegetable oil demand, even with a substantial share of it being value added and exported. However, over the years, the demand for conventional coconut oil declined and was replaced by the increasing demand for desiccated coconut, virgin coconut oil, coconut cream, coconut milk and milk powder (Table 3)

 

So the government must not impose a policy of growing coconut for oil only but promote coconut cultivation and allow profits and demand determine which coconut products should be produced.

 

Madhuca, a multipurpose but underutilized crop

Madhuca longifolia (Mee) is a multipurpose crop, also called ‘Honey Tree’ and ‘Butter Fruit Tree’ with much value as an oil and medicinal crop. Its leaves, flowers, bark and seeds are used in numerous aurvedic treatments. Flowers are used to treat chronic bronchitis and eye diseases; a mixture of flowers and milk is claimed to help in curing impotency and general debility. The flowers are also widely used in the manufacture of liquor as well as different types of food products. Also, the juice of flowers is used to cure many skin diseases. Decoctions prepared from the bark are said to be effective against diabetes. Seed oil is edible and is also used in the treatment of chronic constipation and piles and it also acts as a laxative. Leaves of Madhuca are used in the treatment of eczema.

It is a tropical and sub-tropical tree growing in several Asian and Australian forests and is also cultivated by villagers in some parts of India. Another species Maduca indica appears to be more popular in India, and its oil is also used amongst other things as a biofuel but not much as a dietary oil unlike that of M. longifolia. Both species also called ‘Mahua’ are widely grown in Uttar Pradesh, Madya Pradesh, Gujarat, South India, in three district of Karnataka and monsoon forests of Western Ghats. They flower and fruit by about the 10th year, and about 50-100kg of flowers are produced per season per tree.

Madhuca oil

Madhuca longifolia (Mee) oil has been consumed as an edible oil from antiquity in Sri Lanka and many other countries, apart its numerous other uses as an aurvedic drug. It has also been used for lighting oil lamps. No formal plantings are available locally as far as the writer knows. Fruits from scattered trees especially in the dry zone are collected and seeds used for making oil. It grows in many parts of the dry zone, especially along river banks. Notably, Madhuca has an oil yield potential more than thrice the national coconut oil yield. Probably with varietal selection and genetic improvement, it should be possible to increase yields further. The tree can also be vegetatively propagated.

The oil has a very healthy fatty acid composition, closer to olive oil than coconut or palm oil (Table 4). The high saturated fatty acid composition of coconut has been implicated in the causation of coronary heart disease. In that context, apart from the much higher yield, the high monounsaturated fat content(46%) of Madhuca makes it more heart-friendly in that whereas saturated fatty acids increase both the good (HDL) and bad (LDL) cholesterols, monounsaturated fatty acids increase the good cholesterol and is reported to decrease the bad one.

Thus given the limitations of growing coconut in the dry zone, the higher potential yield of Madhuca and its excellent fatty acid composition, it is potentially a far better crop for expanding in the dry zone. The government should take immediate action to establish a research project, ideally under the Coconut Research Institute to study the potential for its cultivation and uses.

Concluding remarks

Coconut cultivation should certainly be expanded as far as possible as it is a multi-purpose crop. It is a major component in the Sri Lankan diet and has a high demand for value added products. However, its promotion and cultivation expansion should not merely be for oil but based on value added product demand and prices.

At the same time given the massive palm oil demand for consumption as a dietary oil and in many other value added products (Table 2),and costing the country Rs 37 billion annually for its imports, expansion of its cultivation too should be promoted, both in the plantation sector and as a smallholder crop. The farmers should be given the option of crop choice given its far greater returns than from tea, coconut or rubber.

A serious concern has been the declining tea yields, and the some of the low yielding tea lands in the wet zone as also unproductive rubber lands should ideally be converted to oil palm apart from abandoned paddy fields. Oil palm is the highest oil yielding oil crop in the world, yielding on average about four tons per hectare as against less than one ton/ha for soya bean and coconut, and giving far higher returns than any other plantation crop. Sri Lanka should target cultivating in at least about another 50,000 ha of oil palm, engaging also smallholders, as it happens in Malaysia and Indonesia to meet our vegetable oil demand. Reports reveal far higher income earning by them and vastly improved livelihoods as against other plantation crop smallholders.

Concurrently, serious consideration should be given for development of formal cultivations of Madhuca both as an oil and medicinal crop given its vast potential, as happens in India. Ideally dry zone lands should be targeted given the limitations of coconut cultivation in those lands as stated above.