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The Profitable Use Of Leucaena

Leucaena leucocephala ("koa haole"-Hawaii; ipil ipil - Phillipines) is a fast-growing, leguminous nitrogen fixing tree that can be used for reforestation, for firewood, and as a forage crop that can equal alfalfa in nutritional value.  Leucaena can be grown for pulp, reforestation and furniture making.  But the most useful thing about Leucaena is its potential for developing a lucrative business for you. 

 There are three basic types of leucaena trees: Hawaiian, Salvador, and Peru. There are also crosses between these. You need to choose the type that best fills your needs. The Hawaiian type is short and bushy. Because its yield of wood and foliage is low compared to the other two types, this would probably be a poor choice. The Salvador type (Hawaiian giant) is tall and tree-like. The trees can grow 60 ft. in height in five years.

The best varieties of this type are K8 (Mexico), K28, K67 and K72. K67 is the best variety for projects that need to produce large quantities of seed. The Peru type is tall with extensive branching. The trees are good for forage. Good varieties are K6 and K62. An excellent forage-type leucaena is the Cunningham (K500) which was developed in Australia. It is a cross between the Salvador and Peru types.

Giant leucaena is a tall arboreal form of the common koa haole of the tropics that is known for its wide adaptability, hardiness, and rapid growth.

Wood yields of the giant leucaena equal or exceed those of other tropical trees and can be the equivalent annually of 30 barrels of oil per acre. In addition, the tree is a legume that produces a marketable co-product, a nutritious, high-nitrogen leaf meal.

fuel wood and leaf meal.

Leucaena has the highest quality feed of any tropical legume, and the potential to produce the highest high weight gains. Steers can gain 300 kg of live weight in a year with adequate leucaena, and irrigated leuceana has produced over 1000 kg of LWG per ha per year.

 

Some of the Benefits of Leucaena

1. Erosion Control. Leucaena trees provide a high canopy and dense cover that will reduce present rates of soil erosion by wind and rain in the sites considered. Leucaena coppices.  Forest regrowth appears to be too rapid (8 feet in 2 months) for erosion to become serious following coppicing every 4-5 years. The tree farm will act as a much-needed shelter belt on the windy open plains. 

2. Water Quality. Runoff or seepage from established leucaena plantations should be generally comparable to rainwater. No nitrates will be applied, no insecticides or fungicides are proposed, and erosive soil loss should be reduced greatly from that occurring at present. Herbicide use will be confined to the time of establishment, and the proposed herbicides are environmentally safe and lack long-term residue.

3. Soil Quality. Soil quality improves under trees like leucaena, developing excellent tilth, N-and base-status. The deep rooting and leaf drop SPW Ecojustice Centerte a cycle of mineral transfer, notably of Ca, Mg, K and P, from deep within the soil profile to the surface.

4. Air Quality.  The pollen of leucaena has no known allergenic properties and is shed seasonally, rapidly, and at dawn. There are no odors from L. leucocephala flowers; other species have a pleasant odor. Harvest odors should be similar to alfalfa growing in the same region.

5. Esthetics. The rich green color of a leucaena tree farm should generally have a pleasing visual impact anyv here grown, notably in the long dry season.  Air temperatures will be reduced significantly in hot weather, compared to exposed soil areas in the region.

6. Fire Hazard. Fire hazards are virtually nonexistent for green leucaena, a tree recognized as an important fire-retardant species in grassland. Theft is extremely unlikely in leucaena plantations, since there is essentially no local use as food or fuel wood. The forest is an improbable location for production of marijuana or other illegal activities.


7. Fauna and Flora. For the sites considered, the biotic impact of a leucaena farm should be generally salutary. Deer, pheasants, and quail could be encouraged on the plantation once establishment is achieved, although deer can be a serious pest during seedling establishment and after coppicing. Many birds find leucaena trees attractive, although the sites considered host very few indigenous Hawaiian birds. Bees visit the flowers; nothing is known of the honey quality from leucaena.

8. Pests and Diseases. A leucaena farm could benefit environmental quality by reducing pests and diseases of important crop plants.The clearance of grass and other weeds will reduce incidence of viral and fungal pests of corn and vegetable crops and of insects like the pineapple nitidulids.

9. Weed Hazard. Giant leucaenas seed poorly and are unknown as a weed in the world. In this respect, they differ from the common koa haole, which is viewed as a weed by homeowners in Hawaii, and to a lesser extent in sugarcane production. Giant leucaenas produce few seeds, account­ing in part for the high seed cost. They tend to flower annually and dense plantations have a greatly reduced flowering.

Once The Great Forest Covered our Planet. Now through Deforestation It Has been. Trees Are A Key Ally In Our Battle To Lower Carbon and Other Gases In Our Environment.  We Support Planting Multi Use Leucaena In The Tropics.  SPW Ecojustice Center has developed the Leucaena Production Society as it outreach for promoting tree planting worldwide.  The collaboration of SPW Ecojustice Center and LPS is producing a new field of sustainable development called EcoAgroForestry.

Leucaena has many benefits in addition to its uses as livestock feed, fuelwood, energy production, briquettes, and green manure.

 Developing countries need a new crop for driving rural development. We need a way to develop industries in the small towns. Let us take a look at what kind of crop we should select to drive economic development: The selection has to have these parameters:

• It should be easy to get a project started

• It should be renewable resource

• It should be a plant species rather than an animal based project because of the need for regulations in small town against keeping livestock in town

• It should have multiple uses

• It should be developable into a business at many levels and from many entry points

• It should be a product that has a wide many growing marketplace

• it should be environmentally friendly

• It should produce a product that is a green product

• It should be marketable at more that one level for production such as raw material, basic processing, secondary processing, high tech processing

• There should be many end uses

• There should ongoing research on production, processing and utilization of the product in our universities

• It should be possible to process with either small scale, or large scale equipment

• It should be adaptable to most developing countries and their growing conditions without greenhouses, etc.

Leucaena is a plant that meets many of these parameters. 

Leucaena is excellent for energy farming by producing fuel briquettes as well as gasification and generation of electricity. Leucaena has its origins in Central America and the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico where its fodder value was recognised over 400 years ago by the Spanish conquistadores who carried leucaena feed and seed on their galleons to the Philippines to feed their stock (Brewbaker et al. 1985). From there it has spread to most countries of the tropical world where leucaena was used as a shade plant for plantation crops. It was introduced into Australia in the late 19th century and it was naturalised in parts of northern Australia by 1920.

Quick Index To Leucaena Resources

• Leucaena Core Page

• Leucaena The Multiplier Plant

• Leucaena Tropical Farmer Special Report

• EcoAgroForestry

• EcoAgroForestry  Special Report

• Leucaena Production Handbook

• Livestock Feed

• Carbon Sequestration

• Agroforestry

• Information Center

• Leucaena Seeds

• Leucaena Forum Page

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Farmers in tropical countries, just like farmers everywhere, are entrepreneurial. They are risk takers, interested in the future. But farmers don't plant for the future, for them, the future is now. They want a crop that can be profitable now. Leucaena can be the profit center farmers are looking for, this year. Recent research has shown that Leucaena has the capacity to become a major crop for livestock feed in the tropics.

Growing Leucaena for livestock feed is a short-term profit center based on the facts that it can be grazed, green chopped, ensiled, made into dry feeds and form the protein part of compound mixed feed. 

Growing Leucaena is relatively easy.  In the long term, Leucaena has many potential uses for rural Agro-industrial development. Leucaena can add value to Agroresidues such as wheat straw, rice straw, rice hulls, etc.   

Other potential industrial uses for Leucaena include a pellitizing mill, building materials, cloth for clothing and bags, paper pulp, litter, oil absorbent, fertilizer.

Long term industrial developments for Leucaena are being explored by researchers. Farmers can benefit from this research and make plans on how to enter other profit centers based on Leucaena.

Dr. Cross will be developing a Leucaena research project in Belize beginning June 2012..  Contact her at leucaena@solarentrep.com  to participate in this research.

[ ] .  Leucaena Consulting

Hourly:  $150

Minimum: $1,500

Projects: From $3,000+

 

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