Sizzling Castor ( Ricinus communis, Aamanakku, Disa)

Castor crop (Ricinus communis) is one of the high demand cash crops nowadays. And also cost of cultivation and maintenance is much lesser than other cash crops. Castor is suitable for all soil types but do best in fertile, well-drained soil (no water-log). In India, Gujarat(80% of the produce) and Andra Pradesh are major producers.
 Names used:
 Assam - Era-gach
 Bangla - Erando, Veranda
 Gujarat - Divel
 Hindi - Arandi
 Kannada - Haralenne
 Malayalam - Chittamankku or Avanakkanna
 Marathi - Errand
 Oriya - Jada
 Tamil - Aamanakku (ஆமணக்கு),
 Telugu - Aavadam, Aamudalu

Cultivation:
Castor grows well at hot and humid tropical conditions. Duration of the plants are 5-6 months. Castor can be cultivated in two times in a year. Castor can grown as pure crop or inter crop with groundnut, green gram etc. Castor can be cultivated in irrigation or rain fed. Monsoon season(July - October) is good for sowing.
Raising castor by forming ridges 60cm apart and furrows of 30 cm width, 15 cm depth is better than flat bed method.
Spacing adopted for planting

TMV 6      -  90 x 60 cm 

TMVCH 1 -  90 x 60 cm

Varieties: 
The commonly cultivated varieties are TMVCH 1(Hybrid) , TMV 5 , TMV 6. 
Hybrid varieties yield around 1300 kg/ha.

Usage:

Castor seeds are mainly used for oil. Castor is oil rich and having 50% oil content.  Castor oil is used in paints, lubricants, pharmaceutical, textiles and perfumeries etc. And main advantage is used as a biodiesel. The residual oil cake ( Castor meal) , which contains about 5.5 percent Nitrogen, 1.8-1.9 percent Phosphorus and 1.1 percent Potassium, is used as organic manure.
Castor oil (food grade) is used in food additives, flavorings, candy and in packaging.

Future of Castor Seeds:

Castor seed prices surged recent days in India on robust export demand from China and active buying by local mills. India is the major producer and exporter of Castor oil. 100 kg  of castor price is priced in rs 4700. Castor oil export during April 2010-March 2011 343,254 tonnes with vale of, 2362.46 crores. (data from the Solvent Extractors  Association showed). China is the biggest importer of castor oil in this year.

Castor meal(cake) also good demand in  Japan, Vietnam, South Korea, China, Taiwan.

 With the increase in Diesel and Petrol prices, World is looking for the alternative source of energy. Biodiesel is one of the important renewable energy source. One major benefit of biodiesel is biodegradable, non-toxic, less green-house gas emissions.  The biodiesel can be used as 20% blend with petrodiesel without modifying the present engines. Since the castor oil is non-edible and rich oil content, it can be good raw material for biodiesel production.

New castor seed variety has helped improve average national yield