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

Implemented to run between 2011 and 2018, the objectives of this on-going project are to implement, test and refine the Best Management Practice (BMP) concept for yield intensification in oil palm to increase productivity, profitability and sustainability in all growth stages, including nursery, immature and mature development phases.

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 being 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 Sabah, the three blocks of the first replication have now entered the mature stage, and harvest has begun in late 2014. Two more replications (total of six blocks) are now in the immature phase in the field. Rep 4 is currently in the main nursery and will be field planted in 2015. Rep 5 will enter into pre-nursery in 2015. Work on the second site in Sumatra has started and is well advanced. Pre- and main nursery production has been completed. All five replications (10 blocks total) have been field planted and are in the immature phase. Four of these may enter into the mature phase and start producing fruits at the end of 2015. Analyses of main and pre-nursery data will start in 2015. Several presentations on nursery management practices have been made at industry conferences in Asia.

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. This project is unique in its design as it is including all growth stages of the oil palm and will be monitored over a period of eight years.