Castor

Marketing

Marketing And Processing

Assembling of castor seed

  • About 6 percent of the production of castor seed is retained by producers for their seed and domestic requirements where as the rest of the marketable surplus is assembled mainly by producers and village merchants.
  • To a lesser extent merchants and oilseed crushers also purchase castor-seed direct from the villages.
  • The production of the marketable surplus take by the producers to the assembling markets for sale varies widely from area to area.

Trade Description

  • Report of the marketing of castor seed in India by the Marketing Department, Government of India, states that the trade recognises nine different qualities of castor and these are described below :

Chittoor

  • Small-seeded.
  • Low oil content.
  • Grown in Warangal district of Telangana and some parts of Tamilnadu and Madhya Pradesh.
  • This quality accounts for eight per cent of the produce coming to the market.
  • Sells at a heavy discount.
  • Mixtures of chitto and "Hyderabad" in the proportion of 1 : 3 despatched from Warangal area to Maharshtra are known in trade as "Maharshtra chalan."
  • The average oil content is 44.3 by press extraction and moisture per cent 5.4.
  • N.B : Difference between oil percentage determined by chemical process and by expellers, press etc., is usually 4 per cent.
  • Thus when a breeder describes his variety to yield 50 per cent oil it means that by chemical extraction 50 per cent and by crude extraction i.e., by expellers etc., 46 per cent.

Kathiawar

  • Small-seeded.
  • Low oil content.
  • Grown in the areas covered by the former Kathiawar States, including Junagadh, Jamnagar, Kutch etc., and parts of former Baroda State.
  • Its share to total production is 6 per cent.

Madras

  • Medium-sized seed similar to "Hyderabad," but oil content lower than "Hyderabad."
  • Grown in Anantapur, Bellary, Kurnool, Cuddapah, Guntur, and Nellore districts of present Andhra Pradesh and some parts of Karnataka State.
  • Its share to total production is 10 per cent.
  • Sells at a discount as compared to "Hyderabad."
  • In export trade both "Madras" and "Hyderabad" are shipped as "Maharshtra."

Hyderabad

  • Medium-sized seed with high oil content.
  • It is grown extensively in Telangana of Andhra Pradesh and adjoining tracts in Madhya Pradesh.
  • Its share to total production is 25 per cent.
  • It is known as "Factory Chalan" in Hyderabad markets and "Mogalai" in Maharshtra markets.
  • Its oil content by crude extraction is 43 per cent and by chemical extraction 47 per cent.

Gujarat

  • Medium-sized seed. Oil content lower than "Hyderabad".
  • Grown in Gujarat and Baroda areas of Maharshtra State.
  • Its share to total production is 12 per cent.
  • Sells at a lower price than "Hyderabad".

Calcutta

  • Bold seed.
  • High oil content.
  • Grown in Bihar.
  • Its share to total production is 15 per cent.

Salem

  • Bold, deep-coloured seeds, medium oil content.
  • Grown in Salem, North Arcot, South Arcot, Trichinapally and Coimbatore districts of Tamilnadu and some parts of Mysore State.
  • Its share to total production is 7 per cent.
  • This is supposed to yield oil with lower percentage of free fatty acids.

Cawnpore

  • Bold seed.
  • Oil content varying.
  • Grown in Uttar Pradesh and certain parts of Maharashtra.
  • Its share to total production is 14 per cent.
  • This quality in trade usually consists of mixtures for seed size and oil content.

Pares

  • Bold seed.
  • High oil content.
  • Raised in parts of Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu and Maharashtra States.
  • Its share to total production is 3 per cent.
  • This quality is of minor importance.

Processing

Grading and Classification

  • The producer does not grade or even clean the seed while taking the produce to the market.
  • The seed is usually cleaned in mills, assembling markets and at ports where cleaning charges are much higher than in villages.

Extraction

  • Castor seed is crushed by power-driven mills, by bullock-driven chekkus and manually-operated screw presses.

(i) Expellers

  • The seed is fed in the form of meal.
  • An expeller crushes three to four tons of castor seed per day of 10 hours.

(ii) Hydraulic Presses

  • The seed is rolled into meal, heated and moistened by steam and pressed between plates by pressure from hydraulic pumps. Ten to twelve tons of seed is crushed in a day of 10 hours, costing the same as in the expellers.

(iii) Rotary Mills

  • These are mostly in vogue in Gujarat and Baroda parts of Maharshtra State.
  • About half a ton of seed is crushed in 10 hours, worked by a pair of bullocks.

(iv) Chekkus

  • Chekku is the name in South India and ghani in North India.
  • It is the indigenous oil-crushing device in India.
  • It essentially consists of a pestle rotating in a mortar and is used for crushing various oilseeds all over India.
  • The recovery of oil is much lower than from expeller.
  • Quantity crushed per 10 hours is 80 to 125 lb.

(v) Screw Presses

  • A screw-press, also called a hand-press, consists of a number of plates worked by a screw.
  • The seed is turned into meal and packed into small packets of gunny bag cloth and placed in between two plates.
  • A wheel is attached to the screw.
  • This wheel is turned by 5 or 6 men and thus pressure is brought on the plates.
  • Open heat is applied on either side of the press.
  • The oil is squeezed and is collected in a trough below.
  • About half a ton of seed is crushed in 10 hours by one screw.
  • These presses were once very common both at Jadcherla and Bhongir, the largest castor markets in Telangana.

(vi) Boiling Process

  • This process is practised by producers. Seed is crushed into meal, which then is boiled in water.
  • The oil comes at the top.
  • It is decanted and heated slightly to remove traces of moisture.

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Marketing channels for Castor

  • Marketing channels are routes through which agricultural produce move from producer to consumer.
  • The most important marketing channels for castor in India are :
      • 1.  producer to consumer.
      2.  producer to village trader to oil retailer to consumer
      3.  producer to oilseed wholesaler to processes to oil wholesaler to oil retailer to oil consumer.
      4.  Producer to government agency to process or to oil wholesaler to oil retailer to oil consumer.

Distribution of castor seed

  • The distribution of castor seed from assembling markets to crushing centres is effected mainly by whole sale merchants , commission agents, millers and exporters.
  • Owners of ghanis and small crushing establishments generally purchase their seed requirements locally from whole sale merchants.
  • Large oil-mills purchase through their agents at assembling centres.
  • Millers usually purchase their requirements of castor-seed on the basis of samples and in the case of local purchases often after inspecting the produce. Agencies Engaged in the Marketing of Castor:
  • The proportion of marketable surplus taken by producers to the market varies from 10 to 75 per cent.
  • It is estimated that in Bihar, only 10 per cent is taken to the market by the producers while in Uttar Pradesh, 50 per cent is taken.
  • In Composite Andhra Pradesh, 25 to 75 per cent produce is taken by producers directly to the market.
  • For the whole of India, it may be said that about 50 per cent is taken to the market by producers and the remaining 50 per cent reaches the market through various types of middlemen.
  • In some States, the prices offered by middlemen in the villages are better than the ones prevailing in the large markets.

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Yield Of Oil And Cake

  • Experiment conducted with oil extraction tests showed that even by screw process 42 to 43 per cent oil could be extracted, (the total being 46 per cent).
  • The weight of cake varies from 58 to 65 per cent depending upon the moisture retained.

Crushing Seed With or Without Decorticating the Seed

  • In Telangana the seed is crushed without decorticating.
  • The entire castor produce that comes to Jadcherla and Bhongir markets is undecorticated seed.
  • The analysis of the two types of cake is as follows

N
K2O
P2O5
Cake from decorticated seed 6.6% 1.2% 2.6%
Cake from undecorticated seed 4.5% 0.7% 1.9%

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Telangana

Castor

Castor Management