Friday, February 4, 2011

Rapeseed, Rapa, Raps, Canola, Brassica napus

Rapeseed is a some weird cross between  (possibly) 2 different species of Brassica family, there are no wild Brassica napus known, though now days  it grows as an invasive specie pretty much everywhere. Nobody knows exactly when did this thing showed up(there is a story  that claims origins of rape to England of 17th century), but rapeseed oil  was first used to service engines in 19th century. I wouldn't recommend to consider rapeseed to be food since the side effects are pretty creepy.
Nice views  though. Today 62 countries are producing  rapeseed commercially. Canola oil became third largest vegetable oil source in the last decade. In 2009, 61 630 798 tons of rapeseed were produced worldwide, biggest crop ever. That's enough to give each human of 2009  9.05 kg of rapeseed (you can have my share). Still its enough to keep you alive for over 24 days .Worldwide , the crop  of rape could provide 459.3 million people with 2000 calories a day for a year, and there is enough protein for
700mln- 1 000 000 000 people. Green parts  of rape are edible too, though not included in these calculations.
About 40 to 44% of the weight is oil, and once pressed, the "cake " meal  is containing up to 48% of protein.
The meal is used widely to feed cattle ( sometimes hogs and poultry as well, but due  to specific chemicals  it contains  it is not as effective)  and  in some places it is used as a fertilizer. Oil is used for human consumption and biodiesel production. You can get about 900-950 liters of biodiesel from 1 hectare of Brassica napus.  You could drive  a 2011 A3 TDI well over 8000 miles  with that.

However one  does not  want to think about the cost of growing Brassica napus, damage to the soil, etc..
Among many other costs it would require about 110 kg of Nitrogen,  50 kg of Phosphorus, 100 kg of Potassium and 40 kg of Sulfur.  Rapeseed also needs up to 5 times more Boron,  Magnesium, Manganese, Calcium , than , for example , corn/maize.  Copper and especially Molybdenum are also critical if you want to have a good crop.

Biggest producer is China with 13 510 010 t  as of 2009. Biggest producer per capita is Canada with 11 825 400 t produced, that's  344.3 kg per Canadian. That's enough calories for over 2.5 years. 14.7% of all Canada's arable land is used  for rapeseed production.

31 023 788 hectares were used for rapeseed production in 2009(more than ever before, 1.97% of all arable land in the world), a territory slightly smaller by size than Poland , or slightly bigger than Oman.
There are many quotes over the Internet that India is allegedly using 13% of its arable land to produce rapeseed, but that is not true, only 4.26% of its arable land is used for Brassica napus.That's probably because over a half of India is considered to be arable land, with other half serving as residential areas and  industry/infrastructure. Real shame, India had such a beautiful and unique Nature.  No room for that anymore.
Yields. Best  rapeseed yield worldwide  was 1986.5 kg/ha in 2009, worst since  1961-- 536.1 kg/ha in 1963

List of all articles at Ironrye:
 http://ironrye.blogspot.com/2011/10/list-of-all-articles-at-iron-rye.html





Individual record yield belongs to Netherlands  (2004),  4643.9 kg/ha

Rapeseed costs around $670-700 per ton, as of today.  World crop is about $43-46 billion worth
Production, by country,                                                     2007                2008               2009
Algeria
Rapeseed
29000* 29000
M
Argentina
Rapeseed
112302041161167
Australia
Rapeseed
121400018441571910000
Austria
Rapeseed
144706174592171073
Bangladesh
Rapeseed
188880227930220000*
Belarus
Rapeseed
240085513959610968
Belgium
Rapeseed
404953322832000*
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Rapeseed
392519921835
Brazil
Rapeseed
135000* 170000* 180000F
Bulgaria
Rapeseed
93018231176235490
Canada
Rapeseed
96011001264290011825400
Chile
Rapeseed
409086659078501
China
Rapeseed
105725711210201013500010
Colombia
Rapeseed

M
M
M
Croatia
Rapeseed
393306294280424
Czech Republic
Rapeseed
103192010489431128119
Denmark
Rapeseed
588600629200634800
Estonia
Rapeseed
133600111149135992
Ethiopia
Rapeseed
292064772138664*
Finland
Rapeseed
11350088900139900
France
Rapeseed
469109847190535584100
Germany
Rapeseed
532051851547006306700
Greece
Rapeseed
6000 7000 6000*
Hungary
Rapeseed
485901654706579365
India
Rapeseed
743800058340007201000
Iran (Islamic Republic of)
Rapeseed
380000* 390000* 380000*
Ireland
Rapeseed
319002340022000
Italy
Rapeseed
148843265950200
Japan
Rapeseed
1000* 1000* 1000*
Kazakhstan
Rapeseed
11831082690140000*
Kyrgyzstan
Rapeseed
232122188
Latvia
Rapeseed
196900198500204700
Lithuania
Rapeseed
311900330200415800
Luxembourg
Rapeseed
183021649318132
Mexico
Rapeseed
4000* 4000* 4000*
Morocco
Rapeseed
1000* 1000* 1000*
Netherlands
Rapeseed
11800950012000
New Zealand
Rapeseed
2000 2000F
M
Norway
Rapeseed
9697950010000*
Pakistan
Rapeseed
368000390000276000
Paraguay
Rapeseed
80000 4985448161
Poland
Rapeseed
212987321058402496825
Republic of Korea
Rapeseed
71912251000*
Republic of Moldova
Rapeseed
3418095371100000F
Romania
Rapeseed
361500673033569611
Russian Federation
Rapeseed
630325752200666840
Serbia
Rapeseed
298255190744300
Slovakia
Rapeseed
321100424444386691
Slovenia
Rapeseed
14740109499845
South Africa
Rapeseed
381503080040130
Spain
Rapeseed
347002310028900
Sweden
Rapeseed
216100254500298400
Switzerland
Rapeseed
610006210067000
Tajikistan
Rapeseed
13241240F
The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
Rapeseed
235001501
Tunisia
Rapeseed
2500F 2500F
M
Turkey
Rapeseed
2872783965113886
Ukraine
Rapeseed
104740028728001873300
United Kingdom
Rapeseed
210800019730301951000
United States of America
Rapeseed
649519655610669340
Uruguay
Rapeseed
25000* 28000* 32000*
Uzbekistan
Rapeseed
1800 1800
M
World + (Total)
Rapeseed
51477710A 58061092A 61630798A


My usual sources  are : FAO.org, usda.gov, cia.gov, alibaba.com, many others

Share IronRye with your friends ! Thank you for your visit.

Russian-- Рапс       Deutsch , Dansk, Eesti -- Raps
Nederlands-- Koolzaad

سلجم

セイヨウアブラナ

유채

რაფსი

کلزا

No comments:

Post a Comment