Cold pressed oils are gaining popularity now-a-days with people realising their benefits over refined ones so is the process of making these wooden oil mills operated by a pair of bullocks.
The increasing demand for cold pressed edible oils has brought good demand for making of wooden oil mills (called Ganuga in Telugu) and individual farmers and large NGOs are taking to this form of producing groundnut, coconut, sesame oil. Many software professionals too are getting into natural farming and using this as value addition to their produce.
Installing such an oil mill at Hampapuram in Anantapur district, Mr. R. Kodandachari from Thavanampalli village in Chittoor district, who has designed and installed 40 such mills in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, says people have realised that such oil extraction process retains healthy antioxidants that are otherwise damaged by being exposed to excess heat due to higher rotations of machines.
Right wood
At Adarana Integrated Agricultural Farm, he installed an oil mill that takes 12 kg of groundnut in batch and extracts oil in two hours with three rotations per minute (RPM) against 14 to 18 in a semi-mechanised oil mill and even higher for fully automated. A carpenter by profession, he had learnt the craft from his father, but in the past 30 years never used it as none ordered for them. In the past two and a half years, he has built 40 such.
Helping him is S. Vinod Reddy, an organic farmer from the same village. Mr. Reddy points out that antioxidants help combat free radicals that cause cell damage in the body. Explaining the health benefits, he said cold pressed oils were rich in vitamin E, having anti-inflammatory and healing properties. He actively promotes these oil mills while using one himself. Choosing the right wood log that is heat-absorbing and not heat-repellent. Derisina or Bagi wood is most suitable, followed by Nalla Tumma and Tamarind.
The Khadi and Village Industries Commission and Khadi & Village Industries Board provides 40% subsidy on setting up of such oil mills, that costs about ₹2.5 lakh for 12 kg capacity one.
