Gliricidia - the wonder plant

Andrew Scott

As reported in the Daily News (First Dendro Power Plant in Anuradhapura) it is very encouraging that the first Dendro Power Plant which is a gliricidia based power plant located in Anuradhapura District began to feed 500 kw to the national grid recently. This power plant is based on wood fuel derived from the common gliricidia or Wetamara plant growing freely even in the home gardens and backyards of Sri Lanka.

In addition to the extensive growing of the gliricidia plants to obtain wood for this project, it also provides farmers the unique opportunity to engage in dairy farming, organic farming and the manufacture of bio-fertilizer which is environment friendly and the production of fertilizer on a large scale using gliricidia leaves will definitely help us to cut down drastically the country's staggering fertilizer bill.

Financial potential

In the light of these important facts it is relevant for us to reflect on the great importance and utility value of this easily growing hardy plant which is found growing in a semi-wild state even in our home gardens. It is rather discouraging that the gliricidia plant which grows well throughout Sri Lanka is not receiving the attention and recognition it should really receive. It's time we took steps to popularise it as a plant of great financial potential. If given the due importance it can be elevated to the status of a fourth cash crop in par with our main traditional cash crops such as tea, rubber and coconut whose economic potential has already received wide acclaim throughout the years.

Up to now this magnificent plant which serves a variety of purposes both in the villages and in the towns was considered merely as a plant that is used for fencing purposes and as a fodder for cattle. It is prudent that even at this late stage we have realized the immense benefits this humble plant grown in Sri Lanka for several centuries can bestow on us.

Many people seem not to know much about this plant which is commonly found in both the poor man's and the rich man's gardens in this country. This plant is most commonly known by the name Wetamara which name even a little child in Sri Lanka is very familiar with. It is also known as the Sevana plant because it provides shade. Particularly in the villages of Sri Lanka besides it being used as a cheap form of fodder for cattle it is used for fencing purposes and as a fuel wood.

Traditional exports

Today with the state's recent decision this tree has gained a new status in the hierarchy of the crop plants in Sri Lanka because it has been named as the fourth national plantation crop in this country, ranking next only to our traditional exports tea, rubber and coconut which net in a large amount of foreign exchange into our country.

Right now the cultivation of gliricidia or Wetamara is being promoted in a very big way to serve as an energy crop to be used in the production of electricity to the national grid. This is particularly because of the fact that bio-thermal energy has a great potential for generating grid electricity. In the present day context of exorbitantly high oil prices it is more than clear that bio-thermal energy would definitely play an important role in solving the country's power crisis in the future.

It is wise that amidst the present power crisis we should look for cheap alternative sources of energy and the government's decision to adopt gliricidia as a national crop should be applauded by all of us. Today we have given a new status to this humble plant which grows profusely throughout the country.

High quality fertilizer

Of several fuel wood species gliricidia ranks high due to many important reasons such as high wood yield, easy leaf decomposition and easy growing. It is also eminently suitable as a high quality fertilizer. The gliricidia plant has a long and cherished history in the sphere of gardening in Sri Lanka. H F McMillan, a pioneer Botanist who was also the Superintendent of the world famous Peradeniya Botanical Gardens, in his much read and much quoted book Handbook of Tropical Gardening (pages 296/297) gives an important place for the gliricidia or Wetamara plant and says: “A small, quick growing, elegant tree, introduced from the West Indies in about 1889 ..... its quick growth and light feathery habit commend it as a shade tree for crops and green manuring. For the latter purpose it has also the merit of belonging to the nitrogen collecting tribe of plants. The tree forms a good support for vanilla vines. It is considered to have been first introduced into Ceylon by Mr. C. Drieberg, then superintendent of the former Agricultural School of Colombo.”

It is left for us in the present generation to protect and cultivate the gliricidia tree and to harness all its potentials at the national level.