Kenaf – The Environmental Entrepreneurship Powerhouse

Kenaf, Hibiscus cannabinus L.is a warm time annual closely associated to cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) and okra (Abelmoschus esculentus L.).

Kenaf can be used as a domestic source of cordage fiber in the manufacture of rope, twine, carpet backing and burlap. Exploration, in the early 1940s, centered on the progress of superior-yielding anthracnose-resistant kinds, cultural tactics and harvesting equipment.

During the 1950s, kenaf was discovered as a promising fiber supply for paper pulp. Kenaf fibers have been processed into high high quality newsprint and bond paper.

Whilst kenaf is generally thought of a fiber crop, exploration suggests that it has higher protein content material and, therefore, is a potential livestock feed. Crude protein in kenaf leaves ranged from 21 to 34 percent, stalk crude protein ranged from 10 to 12 percent, and entire-plant crude protein ranged from 16 to 23 %.

Kenaf can be ensilaged correctly, and it has satisfactory digestibility with a large percentage of digestible protein. Digestibility of dry issue and crude proteins in kenaf feeds ranged from 53 to 58 percent, and 59 to 71 percent, respectively Kenaf food, made use of as a nutritional supplement in a rice ration for sheep, when compared favorably with a ration containing alfalfa food.

In addition to the use of kenaf for cordage, paper pulp and livestock feed researchers have investigated its use as poultry litter and animal bedding, bulking agent for sewage sludge composting and as a potting soil modification. Extra items include vehicle dashboards, carpet padding, corrugated medium, as a “substitute for fiberglass and other artificial fibers,” setting up components (particle boards of various densities, thicknesses, and fire and insect resistances), absorbents, textiles and as fibers in extraction molded plastics.

Kenaf is in the Hibiscus relatives, is cousin to Cotton and Okra, and is at present grown generally in China and India for its significant energy fibers. Nobody has focused on kenaf for food items since the leaves did not taste superior. Nevertheless, a exclusive strand regarded as Whitten Kenaf was created by the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station and produced for typical use in 2005. These leaves style very great, a type of lemony, Cajun flavor. This variety of kenaf has wide cotton formed leaves, can be used for food, has been developed for meals in Haiti for 3 years in which they adore the taste and have created their personal recipes. The leaves, seeds, stalk and main are all separate harvests. The outcome is multiple makes use of and positive aspects.

The kenaf plant is one particular of the quickest escalating plants in the world, substantially a lot quicker than nearby weeds, so it demands minimum soil preparing and is straightforward to plant and manage. Due to the fact the soil does not have to be tilled, utmost microorganism density is managed and chemical fertilizers are not needed Kenaf is an extremely economical plant that utilizes minimum sources, with fantastic output. Kenaf crops develop up to 20 feet tall. Just one acre can make as much as 20 tons of biomass in 6 months.

Low H2o Utilization

The stalk and roots have the means to retail store water like a camel, so the plant performs particularly properly, even in arid/drought problems the place most other crops are unsuccessful. When planted ahead of wet season, no abide by-up watering is wanted. This absolves the have to have for pricey irrigation and drinking water legal rights difficulties.

Leaves Feed Humans

Whitten Kenaf leaves are delectable and substantial in protein, up to 34%. It is regularly eaten in Haiti in soups, salads, boiled like spinach or added to rice. Kenaf can be eaten within 10 days of planting, when just 18 inches tall, and the leaves and stems can be continually harvested from that stage ahead. Every single planted seed has the likely of developing 80 servings of edible food stuff. Thus, it can be used as a higher protein hunger aversion crop. In point, 2,000 people in Mirebalais, Haiti utilized kenaf to keep from starving in 2009.

In Haiti, quite a few kenaf leaf recipes have been made. Seeds Feed Human beings can be floor into fantastic gluten-free of charge flour for baking. In Mirebalais, Haiti they use kenaf flour for many recipes. 1/2 pound of kenaf flour can make 20 to 30 pan sized breakfast pancakes.

There is a extended tradition of utilizing kenaf for food stuff in India to develop gongura. There are numerous recipes and images of food items based on gongura on the world-wide-web.

Income Crop

Kenaf seeds are sold by the pound, which is composed of about 20,000 seeds. 1 pound of kenaf seed now charges $4.00 USD. In bad soil situations, 1 kenaf plant provides about 200 seeds. 10 acres of inadequate soil can develop 10,000 lbs of kenaf seed for every rising year, symbolizing $40,000 USD of income. Florida research farmer Harry Long, in cooperation Mr. Loftus, came up with an organic and natural formulation in which they yielded 11,382 seeds for every plant!! It will take about 1 year from planting time before community farmers can harvest and offer the seeds as a income crop. They can offer the stalks as firewood at that time, way too.

Animal Feed:

Leaves can be dried and turned into different sized pellets as higher protein feed for rabbits, fish, chickens, and goats. Rabbit meat is definitely amazing for you, being lower in fat and cholesterol and increased in protein than beef. Professional quality rabbit farming and fish farming (tilapia) can be sustained with kenaf pellets. (The US now imports $750M of tilapia for each year from China.)

A yard farming system is also remaining perfected for smaller scale creation of rabbits, fish, chickens, and goats, on smaller plots of land utilizing household developed kenaf pellets, just about reducing feed fees. This presents meat, fish, poultry, eggs, and dairy products and solutions for family consumption and for sale/export. This could be a self sustaining supply of meals and revenue for the poorest of the weak. They can make $25 per 7 days escalating and selecting their own kenaf for animal feed, starting within 2 months of planting the seed. This will not even consider into thought the profits they can obtain from advertising their livestock.

Cooking Fuel:

Cooking Gas: The kenaf stalk has a warmth benefit equivalent to burning pine. A lower cost, safe and sound, smokeless Kenaf Stove has been built for large effectiveness cooking and bio-char (a kind of charcoal) output. The Kenaf Stove burns kenaf or wood in an oxygen deprived environment, resulting in a a lot cleaner, no smoke fire where the gasoline lasts A lot more time. 4 family members can have a year’s supply of gas from a soccer discipline sizing of planted kenaf. When the air source to the stove is shut off, bio-char is created. Generating bio-char from kenaf and putting it into the soil as a soil modification replenishes the soil and functions as a fertilizer and a soil stabilizer.

This recapturing of squander lands can halt deforestation and desertification as people today use kenaf alternatively of accumulating wooden for cooking. Any bio-char not employed as fertilizer can be molded into charcoal briquettes. The Kenaf Stove can also use grass, squander paper, and many others. to make bio-char which is then created into charcoal briquettes. Families can then promote the charcoal for money.

Carbon Sequestration

One particular acre of kenaf can sequester 8 situations as considerably carbon as an acre of evergreen trees. A person acre of kenaf absorbs roughly 10 to 20 tons of Carbon during photosynthesis. When utilised as cooking fuel on the Kenaf Stove, an added 5 tons of bio-char is manufactured. When place into the earth, this bio-char forever suppliers the carbon in a useful way, in the ground.

Kenaf is carbon negative, when you place the bio-char into the soil. If we can adjust from coal to kenaf for building electrical power, we can sequester adequate CO2 per 12 months to entirely fix the anthropogenic impact on climate change, impacting world wide warming

Electrical energy Technology

Inventor C. Morrison has developed a biomass electrical power plant that can use kenaf biomass to create a hydrogen/carbon monoxide fuel known as syngas. These gasses are enough to operate an electrical generator. Just one energy plant can services an entire rural village. The biomass generate for an acre of kenaf is 3 to 4 moments better than for trees. 50 acres of kenaf can gas 1 electric power plant, perpetually.

This procedure is self-contained and poses no air high quality, h2o high-quality, soil degradation, odor, or sounds troubles. There are no special design or set up needs. It is as uncomplicated to run as any house equipment and is tiny ample to healthy on a trailer (see photograph) or be mounted in a tiny building. The electric power not applied by the rural village can be bought to the electrical power grid as an supplemental supply of money. Imagine a continuous provide of electrical power remaining equipped to city facilities by rural villages, this in nations plagued by normal brownouts and blackouts. The only by-solution from gasification is a sellable bio-char ash that can be employed as a soil modification for growers.

Organic and natural Fertilizer

An economical natural and organic fertilizer that can be manufactured regionally, using bio-char, is currently being created. Bio-char functions as a dwelling for microbial activity. This can be used to enhance soil high-quality even in the poorest of soils, without using harmful and highly-priced chemical fertilizers Bio-char as a fertilizer has been identified to double plant growth. This will raise the yields and profitability for every square meter of the kenaf plants and other fruits and veggies developed in subsequent years. This will guide to a virtuous cycle of rising economic prosperity from yr to year, working with land sources currently seen as unproductive.

Kenaf bio-char can even be employed in managing human bodily squander to convert the nitrogen into effective kinds, turning a waste item into a source. This would enhance sanitary conditions and would have been handy in the course of the current Cholera outbreak in Haiti. 5 gallon buckets can be applied as bathrooms and when put together with biochar, inside of 6 months the poo and urine can be properly employed as fertilizer. If 2 billion folks have been to use these toilets, then 2 billion lbs . of fertilizer would be created every single day. About time we could even recapture the deserts.

Textiles The bast (slender outer bark) of the kenaf plant is a large strength fiber made use of to make burlap baggage, plastics, industrial and industrial materials, cordage, rope and twine.

Paper

Kenaf paper has outstanding fiber written content as opposed to wooden-based paper goods, and it normally takes considerably significantly less time to expand kenaf when compared to trees.

Building Products

The fibrous outer core of plant stems can be used to make composites, polymers, binders, biodegradable plastic, injection molded panels, engineered wooden panels, substitute for carbon, glass, other mineral fibers, fibrous reinforcement of plaster, cement, and wall boards. Design The Styrofoam-like interior core of the kenaf plant can be utilised for animal bedding, kitty litter, municipal wastewater therapy, and for oil spill cleanup on land or at sea. In conjunction with recycled wood and recycled concrete, the kenaf core can also be applied to make a gentle bodyweight still really robust cement block that has wonderful insulation qualities and is almost fireproof. These blocks can be applied to build single family properties and multi-story properties, with no utilizing power applications.

A self-sustaining environmental dwelling has been made using kenaf and other systems, at a price between $5,000 and $10,000 (depending on conditions, sewage and electrical specifications and measurements) for every home. These households will deliver for clean up h2o, housing, electrical energy, and sanitation. Supposed as a acquiring country starter home, construction is so uncomplicated that young ones can assemble a house in 1 day< and a family can easily add-on additional rooms and rent them out as a source of extra income. This makes it possible for single mothers to become financially independent without having to work outside the home. The societal implications of this are staggering

De-urbanization

This is a side effect from effectively leveraging kenaf as a way to provide food, shelter, and a living wage, in a rural setting. People living in the city slums can move back to their rural origins and actually provide for themselves, sustainably. The Whitten variety of Hibiscus cannabinus L.,is a good tasting kenaf that has the potential to serve as a food source in many countries.

Kenaf is a plant that has the potential to change the world. It is a very old plant used by mankind. Throughout the Bible you read about sackcloth. Sackcloth is made from kenaf. Only royalty was allowed to wear linen or cotton. The poor grew kenaf, spun it and made their clothes from kenaf. They made ropes and cordage from kenaf.

Many people want to help the environment. Many people are trying to find ways to lower the greenhouse gases that are heating up our world. We worry about the Arctic ice melting and the loss of the polar bear. We are all concerned with the more and more violent weather patterns, the floods, earthquakes and volcanoes erupting. We don’t want to see sea levels rise and inundate our coastal cities. But what can one person do?

Some people have gotten involved with tree planting projects. Tree planting projects are great. They sequester quite a lot of carbon. The problem is, the people who are involved are operating in what I call an incomplete transaction. The people who have tree planting projects get the resources they need and you get the satisfaction of knowing you are doing something good but there is no return for you donation.

What if there were a way to do something really good for the environment, something that sequesters more carbon than trees…and at the same time it offers you a payback? Yes, that’s what I mean. A return on your investment. Sequester carbon, help the environment and earn money at the same time? There is a plant called kenaf that sequesters more carbon than any other species on the Earth. One acre of kenaf sequesters as much carbon as 8 acres of fast growing pine trees.

Kenaf Could Change the World If We All Got Involved In Planting It And Using It. Here’s What Kenaf Can Do:

1. Sequester More Carbon Per Acre Than Any Other Plant

2. Be Food For Humans Anywhere In The World Where There Is Hunger

3. Make Excellent Feed For Livestock including Backyard Fish Ponds

4. The Stalks Can Be Used As Firewood

5. Make Biochar For Fertilizing The Earth Organically

6. Make Beautiful Cloth That Can Be Used For Clothing And Industrial Use

7. Make Biocomposites That Can Be Used For Car Interiors

8. Be Used To Generate Electricity

9. Make A Better Quality Paper Than Pine Trees And Be Ready For Use In 6 Months Instead Of Years

10. Have Seeds That Can Be Made Into Gluten Free Flour

11. Have Seeds That Can Be Made Into A Cosmetic Oil

12. Have Leaves That Make Excellent Potherbs

13. Can Be Cut Back Many Times And When It Regrows It Produces More Food Or Feed

14. Grows Faster Than Just About Any Plant

15. Does Not Use A Lot Of Water – It Grows In Somalia

16. BioChar Made From Kenaf Can Treat Human Wastes And Turn It Into Fertilizer

17. The Inner Core Is Excellent For Animal Bedding Without Dust

18. Many Kinds Of Building Materials Can Be Made From The Bast Fiber

19. The Inner Core Fiber Can Be Made Into A Filler For A Lightweight Cement Block

20. Extracted Kenaf seed oil can be used as a bio-fuel for Diesel engines

This plant could feed people in poor countries. This plant could sequester more carbon everywhere in the world. This plant could provide biological fertilizers. And the plant has so many uses.

We need to build an organization made up of people who want to see less hunger, more firewood, inexpensive homes for poor people in developing countries. The people we seek to connect with are probably doing something green in their lives. They would just like to find a way to make it profitable while being more Green. In other words, having a complete transaction.

There is a need to find people dedicated to planting kenaf and has already developed marketing vehicles for the kenaf fiber and other products. We are actively researching vegetable dyes, making kenaf fabric water repellent with environmentally sound materials. We have plans to make back packs, tote bags, and household items from kenaf. And we are already getting ready to develop our own kenaf handmade paper project in Belize.

We invite you to invest in your kenaf planting as a member of our community.

Kenaf is the environmental entrepreneurship powerhouse with multiple profit centers.

for you. It is not a graduate course in a university. It is a down to earth program.

The climate change is getting worse. But we now have a means to take control of our environmental problems and do something to ameliorate them.

We on this planet are in a battle for our survival as a species.From time to time on this very active planet we have extinction level events (ELE). Most of them are the results of acts of nature. But we are creating our own extinction level event (ELE). When the death rock fell from the sky and wiped out the dinosaurs, they had no warning. They didn’t know what hit them. But our extinction level is happening slowly enough that we can take action. We are sentient, we have our minds and our hands. We can take command of what is happening on our world. What can I do you say? We say, “Plant kenaf.”

We can plant kenaf or invest in someone else planting it. We can stop global warming.

We can create businesses to make money for you and other investors while you help remove carbon from the atmosphere.We can all actively participate in the real war.

THE WAR TO REGENERATE OUR WORLD.

It’s time to get our planet back to normal levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. One acre of kenaf sequesters as much carbon dioxide as 8 acres of fast growing pine trees.

YOU CAN EVEN DO THIS: Planting a small kenaf plot in your garden can help take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and contribute to the battle against global warming. You could use the leaves for high protein greens, and chickens love it, too. Use the seeds for gluten-free flour, and the stalks for dust-free bedding for animals.

Planting one manzana of kenaf in a tropical country, as an investor or as a farmer, could net you thousands of dollars in monetary return, and sequester tons of carbon dioxide, providing you an environmental return.

Kenaf was used for rope and for making sackcloth 6,000 years ago. Its new uses include biocomposites being manufactured for Toyota which plans to make all its car interiors with kenaf.

Kenaf combined with recycled plastic makes an excellent building material as well as raw material for industrial use.

And, at the same time with it high protein content, it can feed the hungry of the world, people and animals.Kenaf can replace tree cutting as it makes tree free paper, can be used for people food as a potherb or gluten free flour, livestock feed, paper, biochar, carbon sequestration, fabric and biocomposites

This ecofriendly plant that has the potential to create a successful green business for you. Grow kenaf in your backyard or in a large plantation.