Best Management Practice for Crop Nutrition of Mature Oil Palm

This project was started in 2011 in one plantation in Kalimantan, Indonesia, and will continue until 2015. The main objective of this experiment is to implement, test, and refine the Best Management Practice (BMP) concept specifically for fertilization and nutrition approaches for yield intensification in order to increase productivity, profitability, and sustainability of palm oil production in mature oil palm plantations. Specific objectives are to: (a) determine the fertilizer recovery efficiency at PT Sungai Rangit—for each input unit of fertilizer applied how much nutrient is taken up by the palms; (b) determine the fertilizer physiological efficiency at PT Sungai Rangit—for each additional unit of nutrient uptake how much additional oil is produced; (c) optimize fertilization strategies for PT Sungai Rangit—fertilizer application amounts, splitting frequencies, adjusted to representative conditions at Sungai Rangit for specific yield targets; (d) demonstrate a repeatable process as to how procedures and nutrient amounts can be adjusted at commercial block scale in low soil fertility production setting to achieve set yield targets; and (e) jointly publish the results of this project upon mutual agreement between IPNI Southeast Asia Program, PT Sungai Rangit, and the K+S KALI GmbH. The ultimate goal will be to enable the use of BMPs for nutrient management to become standard within the industry.

The project will deploy a two pronged approach including commercial block scale implementation of fertilizer management strategies, complemented by block embedded omission plots. Commercial block scale testing of application practices will contribute to more efficient fertilizer application management by the plantation and will contribute information for general fine tuning of nutrient best management practices. Omission plots will generate site specific information about fertilizer use efficiency for the plantation and will be developed into a general tool for plantation nutrient management. We will use 12 commercial blocks. Blocks will be distributed in sets of four within 2 estates of the plantation. Each set of four blocks contains two BMP blocks where fertilizers are applied in 4 splits—one with a high fertilizer rate (BMP 1), the other with a low fertilizer rate (BMP 2), and two reference blocks where all IPNI SEAP BMPs are deployed but fertilizer application follows current standard practice—one with high fertilizer rate (BMP 3), the other with low fertilizer rate (BMP 4). Fertilizers are applied as blended mixes including N-P-K-Mg-B. Omission plots are embedded in 9 of the 12 blocks. Each omission plot contains sub plots for -N, -P, -K, -Mg, -B, and -S, zero and full application. The plot size is a 4x4 palm measurement plot, within a 6x6 palm plot, which is bounded by a trench. The project is currently ongoing, and no specific results are available at this time. SEA–05