Best Management Practice for Maximum Economic Yield in All Growth Stages of Oil Palm

This project was started in 2011 and will continue until 2018 with an objective to implement, test, and refine the Best Management Practice (BMP) concept for yield intensification in order to increase productivity, profitability, and sustainability of palm oil production in all growth stages of oil palm including nursery, immature and mature development phases of the crop. BMPs are implemented in five full-size management blocks in two collaborating plantations in Sumatra (Indonesia) and Sabah (Malaysia) in re-plantings of existing plantations by IPNI and its plantation partners. Results from the BMP implementation are compared to those achieved under standard plantation practices in five reference blocks. At the outset of the research, reference and BMP blocks had similar conditions and performance.

In late 2011, BMP implementation at the Sabah project site had produced about 70% of the seedlings for transplanting into the main nursery. The remaining 30% of seedlings will be produced in the pre-nursery during 2012. In parallel, land preparation for three BMP blocks and three reference blocks had started in late 2011. Transplanting of seedlings from the main nursery into the field blocks is expected to start in the second half of 2012. Currently, the first data are compiled from monitoring of the pre-nursery phase. Databases for the 8-year project are being designed and set up in early 2012. Work on the second site in Sumatra is expected to start in 2012, depending on the replanting schedule of the plantation partner. This project is unique in its design as it is including all growth stages of the oil palm and proposes as monitoring over a period of 8 years. SEA–04