Best Management Practice for Crop Nutrition of Mature Oil Palm

This project was initiated in 2011 in one plantation in Kalimantan, Indonesia, 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. 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 BMPs. 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 are using 12 commercial blocks. Blocks are being distributed in sets of four within two estates of the plantation. Each set of four blocks contains two BMP blocks where fertilizers are applied in four 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-S-Mg-B. Omission plots are embedded in the 12 blocks. Each omission plot contains sub plots for zero and full application. The plot size is a 4m x 4m measurement plot, within a 6m x 6m plot, which is bounded by a trench.

Treatments BMP 1 and 2 are performing well after the reduction in residual effects from previous years’ management of commercial blocks. In the last 12 months of available data (until September 2013) BMP1 and BMP4 performed best in FFB production, followed by BMP2 and then by BMP3. In 2012, we started the bunch analyses process to determine the impact of management practices on oil extraction rates. Data analysis have been conducted in 2013 and will continue in 2014. Through this process, estates are enabled to identify better ways to implement BMPs for yield intensification, and decisions on larger investments in BMPs are based on practical, commercial-scale evidence.