Kenaf, Hibiscus cannabinus L.is a warm season annual closely related to cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) and okra (Abelmoschus esculentus L.).

Kenaf can be used as a domestic supply of cordage fiber in the manufacture of rope, twine, carpet backing and burlap. Research, in the early 1940s, focused on costs smokeless coal for sale the development of high-yielding anthracnose-resistant varieties, cultural practices and harvesting machinery.

During the 1950s, kenaf was identified as a promising fiber source for paper pulp. Kenaf fibers have been processed into high quality newsprint and bond paper.

Although kenaf is usually considered a fiber crop, research indicates that it has high protein content and, therefore, is a potential livestock feed. Crude protein in kenaf leaves ranged from 21 to 34 percent, stalk crude protein ranged from 10 to 12 percent, and whole-plant crude protein ranged from 16 to 23 percent.

Kenaf can be ensilaged effectively, and it has satisfactory digestibility with a high percentage of digestible protein. Digestibility of dry matter and crude proteins in kenaf feeds ranged from 53 to 58 percent, and 59 to 71 percent, respectively Kenaf meal, used as a supplement in a rice ration for sheep, compared favorably with a ration containing alfalfa meal.

In addition to the use of kenaf for cordage, paper pulp and livestock feed researchers have investigated its use as poultry litter and animal bedding, bulking agent for sewage sludge composting and as a potting soil amendment. Additional products include automobile dashboards, carpet padding, corrugated medium, as a "substitute for fiberglass and other synthetic fibers," building materials (particle boards of various densities, thicknesses, and fire and insect resistances), absorbents, textiles and as fibers in extraction molded plastics.

Kenaf is in the Hibiscus family, is cousin to Cotton and Okra, and is currently grown mainly in China and India for its high strength fibers. Nobody has focused on kenaf for food because the leaves did not taste good. However, a unique strand known as Whitten Kenaf was developed by the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station and released for general use in 2005. These leaves taste quite good, a sort of lemony, Cajun taste. This variety of kenaf has wide cotton shaped leaves, can be used for food, has been grown for food in Haiti for 3 years where they love the taste and have developed their own recipes. The leaves, seeds, stalk and core are all separate harvests. The result is multiple uses and benefits.

The kenaf plant is one of the fastest growing plants in the world, much faster than local weeds, so it requires minimal soil preparation and is easy to plant and maintain. Because the soil does not have to be tilled, maximum microorganism density is maintained and chemical fertilizers are not needed Kenaf is an extremely efficient plant that uses minimal resources, with exceptional output. Kenaf plants grow up to 20 feet tall. One acre can produce as much as 20 tons of biomass in 6 months.

Low Water Usage

The stalk and roots have the ability to store water like a camel, so the plant performs extremely well, even in arid/drought conditions where most other plants fail. When planted before rainy season, no follow-up watering is needed. This absolves the need for expensive irrigation and water rights issues.

Leaves Feed Humans

Whitten Kenaf leaves are delicious and high in protein, up to 34%. It is regularly eaten in Haiti in soups, salads, boiled like spinach or added to rice. Kenaf can be eaten within 10 days of planting, when just 18 inches tall, and the leaves and stems can be continually harvested from that costs smokeless coal for sale point forward. Each planted seed has the potential of creating 80 servings of edible food. Therefore, it can be used as a high protein starvation aversion crop. In fact, 2,000 people in Mirebalais, Haiti used kenaf to keep from starving in 2009.

In Haiti, several kenaf leaf recipes have been developed. Seeds Feed Humans can be ground into wonderful gluten-free flour for baking. In Mirebalais, Haiti they use kenaf flour for several recipes. 1/2 pound of kenaf flour can make 20 to 30 pan sized breakfast pancakes.

There is a long tradition of using kenaf for food in India to produce gongura. There are many recipes and photos of foods based on gongura on the internet.

Money Crop

Kenaf seeds are sold by the pound, which consists of about 20,000 seeds. 1 pound of kenaf seed currently costs $4.00 USD. In poor soil conditions, 1 kenaf plant produces about 200 seeds. 10 acres of poor soil can grow 10,000 lbs of kenaf seed per growing season, representing $40,000 USD of income. Florida research farmer Harry Long, in cooperation Mr. Loftus, came up with an organic formula where they yielded 11,382 seeds per plant!! It takes about 1 year from planting time before local farmers can harvest and sell the seeds as a money crop. They can sell the stalks as firewood at that time, too.

Animal Feed:

Leaves can be dried and turned into different sized pellets as high protein feed for rabbits, fish, chickens, and goats. Rabbit meat is really wonderful for you, being lower in fats and cholesterol and higher in protein than beef. Commercial grade rabbit farming and fish farming (tilapia) can be sustained with kenaf pellets. (The US currently imports $750M of tilapia per year from China.)

A backyard farming method is also being perfected for small scale production of rabbits, fish, chickens, and goats, on small plots of land using home grown kenaf pellets, virtually eliminating feed costs. This provides meat, fish, poultry, eggs, and dairy products for family consumption and for sale/export. This could be a self sustaining source of food and income for the poorest of the poor. They can make $25 per week growing and picking their own kenaf for animal feed, starting within 2 months of planting the seed. This doesn't even take into consideration the income they can receive from selling their livestock.

Cooking Fuel:

Cooking Fuel: The kenaf stalk has a heat value comparable to burning pine. A low cost, safe, smokeless Kenaf Stove has been designed for high efficiency cooking and bio-char (a form of charcoal) production. The Kenaf Stove burns kenaf or wood in an oxygen deprived environment, resulting in a much cleaner, no smoke fire where the fuel lasts MUCH longer. 4 families can have a year's supply of fuel from a football field size of planted kenaf. When the air supply to the stove is shut off, bio-char is created. Making bio-char from kenaf and putting it into the soil as a soil amendment replenishes the soil and functions as a fertilizer and a soil stabilizer.

This recapturing of waste lands can halt deforestation and desertification as people use kenaf instead of collecting wood for cooking. Any bio-char not used as fertilizer can be molded into charcoal briquettes. The Kenaf Stove can also use grass, waste paper, etc. to make bio-char which is then made into charcoal briquettes. Families can then sell the charcoal for income.

Carbon Sequestration

One acre of kenaf can sequester 8 times as much carbon as an acre of evergreen trees. One acre of kenaf absorbs approximately 10 to 20 tons of Carbon during photosynthesis. When used as cooking fuel on the Kenaf Stove, an additional 5 tons of bio-char is made. When put into the earth, this bio-char permanently stores the carbon in a beneficial way, in the ground.

Kenaf is carbon negative, when you put the bio-char into the soil. If we can change from coal to kenaf for making power, we can sequester enough CO2 per year to completely solve the anthropogenic effect on climate change, impacting global warming

Electricity Generation

Inventor C. Morrison has developed a biomass power plant that can use kenaf biomass to create a hydrogen/carbon monoxide gas called syngas. These gasses are sufficient to run an electrical generator. One power plant can service an entire rural village. The biomass yield for an acre of kenaf is 3 to 4 times higher than for trees. 50 acres of kenaf can fuel 1 power plant, perpetually.

This system is self-contained and poses no air quality, water quality, soil degradation, odor, or noise issues. There are no unique construction or installation requirements. It is as simple to operate as any household appliance and is small enough to fit on a trailer (see picture) or be mounted in a small building. The electricity not used by the rural village can be sold to the electrical power grid as an additional source of income. Imagine a constant supply of electricity being supplied to urban centers by rural villages, this in nations plagued by regular brownouts and blackouts. The only by-product from gasification is a sellable bio-char ash that can be used as a soil amendment for growers.

Organic Fertilizer

An inexpensive organic fertilizer that can be made locally, using bio-char, is being developed. Bio-char acts as a home for microbial activity. This can be used to enhance soil quality even in the poorest of soils, without using dangerous and expensive chemical fertilizers Bio-char as a fertilizer has been known to double plant growth. This will increase the yields and profitability per square meter of the kenaf plants and other fruits and vegetables grown in subsequent years. This will lead to a virtuous cycle of increasing economic prosperity from year to year, using land resources currently viewed as unproductive.

Kenaf bio-char can even be used in treating human bodily waste to convert the nitrogen into productive forms, turning a waste product into a resource. This would improve sanitary conditions and would have been useful during the recent Cholera outbreak in Haiti. 5 gallon buckets can be used as toilets and when combined with biochar, within 6 months the poo and urine can be safely used as fertilizer. If 2 billion people were to use these toilets, then 2 billion pounds of fertilizer would be generated every day. Over time we could even recapture the deserts.