E-mail me at this address: panditji@cseindia.org

Dear Panditji,
Please tell me about olive oil. Can it be grown in Uttranchal? How much time it takes to harvest the first crop?

Vishal Singh
Via e-mail

Dear Vishal Ji,
Olive oil is a vegetable oil obtained from the fruit of the Olive tree
(Olea europaea L.). It is used in cooking, cosmetics, soaps, and as a fuel for traditional oil lamps.

The olive tree flowers in the spring and takes five months for the green fruit to attain full size.

The harvesting of olives is done in the fall before the fruit over ripens and turns black.

Olive oil production begins by transforming the olive fruit into olive paste. This paste is then malaxed to allow the microscopic oil droplets to concentrate.

The oil is extracted by means of pressure (traditional method) or Centrifugation (modern method). After extraction the remnant solid substance, called pomace, still contains a small quantity of oil. Olive oil is classified by how it was produced, by its chemistry, and by its flavor.

Though olive oil is produced principally in Spain, Italy, France, Greece, Turkey, Portugal, Tunisia and the United States, the brands available in the Indian market are predominantly Italian, with one American brand (Bertolli).

Uttaranchal offers a good potentiality for growing certain specialised crops such as olives.

Dear Panditji,
I read about fibre from Banana trees in Down To Earth issue dated May 16-31, 2006.
I am a student and at the same time I am planting Banana trees in a part of property given to me by my uncle at Sancorda – Goa.

I get really bothered about throwing away the trunk of Banana tree once it is chopped.

After reading this article, I was very happy. I could extract fibre from cut off Banana trees, which can also help my father to get some extra money for my education.

Please tell me how to proceed. Please give me the address of agency that can help me by providing literature guidance and machinery required for this work.

Jaivant Kamat
Via e-mail

Dear Jaivant Kamat ji,
Banana trunks, after the fruit is harvested, are waste material posing a problem of disposal.

But, the same trunk contains fibre to the extent of approximately 4 per cent of its weight. Since there is a shortage of fibrous material for making paper in the country, the banana trunk fibre can be used economically.

There are two ways of extracting the fibre: manual and mechanical. The former involves cutting the trunks into small pieces and scraping them with the help of a comb-like structure called the scraper. An individual can scrape around 0.8 to 1 kg of fibre in eight hours. Mechanically, around 10-12 kg of the fibre can be extracted in the same duration. But the quality of the manually extracted fibre is far better, as it has low levels of pith and moisture, and thus it fetches a higher price.

For more information you can visit the website of Khadi and Villages Industries Commission (KVIC) at www.kvic.org.in or e-mail National Research Centre for Banana (under Indian Council of Agricultural Research) at nrcb@trichy.tn.nic.in.