India, improving crop productivity

RIZVI AND Rizvi Improving Crop Productivity in India... 

The castor plant is widely considered to be a nuisance plant, because it proliferates rapidly in poor, depleted soils that cannot sustain other more important commercial crops. It spreads quickly as a weed, and in some places has been listed as an intrusive species to be eliminated [51, 52]. Nevertheless, in recent years the industrial volume of castor oil has increased dramatically, driven primarily by the global interest in renewable resources for fuel and feedstocks as an alternative to petrochemicals. The majority of the volume growth has come from the Asian continent, primarily from India, where the castor plant is harvested commercially [53]. In addition to its direct use in pol3mrethane products, the oil and its components have been the focus of innovative new derivatization strategies to improve their properties for use in plastics, while retaining high levels of renewable content in the final products. These developments will be described in Section 4.5. 

Since the late 1960s to the present date, plant breeders have diligently selected rapeseed to minimize or eliminate the erucic acid from the oil and glucosinolates from the meal. Much of the recent expansion in the rapeseed industry in Canada and Europe is attributable to the dramatic improvements in the quality of oil and meal over the past 20 years. Another important factor is the wide adaptability of different types of rapeseed to different environments and their ability to thrive in harsh climates. In Canada and Europe most rapeseed is grown north of the 45° parallel. However, in China and India production is comparatively close to the equator, approximately 25°-40°N. This combination of improved quality and wide adaptability makes the crop very attractive to many developed and developing countries which are otherwise deficient in edible oil and in high protein meal. 

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