Palm Oil (Oil for The Poor)

Palm oil: The Origin

• It is generally agreed that the Oil Palm (Elaeis guineensis) originated in the tropical rain forest region of West Africa in 1822
• The main belt runs through the southern latitudes of Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Togo and into the equatorial region of Angola and the Congo
• After 1853, oil palm seeds were distributed to North Sumatera, however between 1880 – 1890:
• Palm trees were only planted as ornamental terrace plants in tobacco estates such as St. Cyr  Estate, Bekalla Estate and Tanjung Morawa Estate
• The commercial planting of oil palm  in Sumatera only began in 1911 when the Belgian agronomist named M. Adrien Hallet opened up the 1st commercial oil palm estate in the Deli District, near Medan
• In Malaysia, oil palm was introduced as an ornamental terrace plant by French rubber and coffee planter, Henry Fauconnier which purchased oil palm seeds from  Tanjung Morawa Estate.
• Planted oil palm as ornamental plants along the road leading to his house in his Rantau Panjang Estate in Selangor.
• Henry Fauconnier then use oil palm seeds from Rantau Panjang Estate to the 1st commercial oil palm planting in Malaysia in 1917 at his Tennamaran Estate in Batang Berjuntai, Selangor
• Henry Fauconnier however ran into a financial difficulties, and the estate was sold to Sime Darby.

Palm oil: Fruit at a glance

• Palm oil in its natural condition is reddish due to the high content of beta carotene and it is one of the few vegetable oils that have relatively high saturated fat content
• Thus, it appears in semi – solid form at typical temperate temperature and liquid form in warmer climates
• Palm oil fruits produces two distinct oils:
• Palm oil : contain several saturated and unsaturated fats in the form of lauric (0.1% saturated), myristic (0.1% saturated), palmistic (44% saturated), stearic (5% saturated), oleic (39% monounsaturated), linoleic (10% polyunsaturated) and linolenic (0.3% polyunsaturated) acids
• Palm Kernel oil

The picture of oil palm fruit

Palm oil: Climate & Cultivation

• Palm oil trees can only grow in areas with at least 2,000mm of rainfall evenly distributed throughout the year with no marked dry period, abundant sunshine and temperatures between 29-32 degrees celcius.
• Suitable locations are about 20 degrees of the Equator i.e. South Pacific, Africa and South America regions.

Palm oil: Soils Suitable for cultivation

• Suitable soils characteristics:
• Acidic (pH<5)
• Have low contents of Nitrogen (N), exchangeable Phosphorus (P) & Exchangeable Magnesium (M)
• Layers which are easily penetrable
• Good water retention characteristics
• Ideally shouldn’t be planted on slopes exceeding a 15% gradient
• Suitability Characteristics of eight soil types commonly used for oil palm in Southeast Asia:

Palm oil: Key processes in production

• The key sub processes involved in the development of plantations for the production of fresh fruit bunch (FFB) are summarised below:

• The planning phase:
• For the development of new plantations would involve the conduct for the feasibility studies and environment impact assessment (EIA)
• If area to be developed is a primary forest or secondary forest in excess  of 500 ha
• Involves changes in the types of agricultural of land in  of 500 ha.
• The EIA study would facilitate the identification potential environmental and social impacts and development of management plans to mitigate the adverse effects.
• Nursery Establishment:
• Commences as soon as the land is found to be suitable and approved by the respective agencies for development to proceed 
• Good quality DxP seedlings are raised in a polybag nursery for about 12 months  
• Good nursery practices such as adequate watering, manuring and culling of seedlings with undesirable characteristics are essential for the production of vigorous planting materials.
• Site Preparation:
• Includes land survey, clearing of existing vegetation, establishment of a road and field drainage system, soil conservation measures such as terracing, conservation bunds and silt pits and sowing of leguminous cover crops.
• Field Establishment:
• It is an activity of lining, holing and planting of polybag oil palm seedlings at density of 136 to 148 palms per ha, depending on the soil type
• It is important that effort is made to obtain full ground coverage by leguminous cover crops such as Pueraria javanica and Calopogonium caeruleum
• To minimise soil loss through runoff as well as to improve the soil properties through nitrogen fixation

Picture of Immature oil palm with full cover of leguminous cover crops:

• Field Maintenance:
• It is an operations that include weeding, water management, pruning,  pest and disease management and manuring (fertilising). 
• Integrated pest management involving a mix of cultural, physical, chemical and biological control approaches to minimise crop losses to pests is commonly adopted in plantations
• Example of biological control measures applied include the use of:
• Baculovirus and Metarhizium anisopliae to control the rhinoceros beetle (Oryctes rhinoceros), control of leaf-eating bagworms and nettle caterpillars by their natural predators and parasitoids
• Barn owls (Tyto alba) as the biological agent to control rats

• Harvesting & Collection:
• Harvesting of FFB commences between 24 to 30 months after field planting, depending on the soil type and agronomic and management inputs.
• It is done manually , using a chisel in young palms and a sickle mounted on a bamboo or aluminum pole in taller palms 
• There are various systems for in-field collection of FFB and transportation to the palm oil mill and due to increasing shortage of  of workers as well as the need to increase worker productivity, mechanised approaches have been adopted
• Example is the use of the tractor-mounted ‘grabber’ 

•      Replanting
•     The economic cycle of the oil palm is about 25 years, after which the old stand will be replanted 
•     However, in some situations, plantations  consider underplanting, whereby new seedlings are planted under the old palms which are thinned out progressively to allow the development of the new stand