Best Management Practice for Crop Nutrition of Mature Oil Palm

This project's objective 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. The ultimate goal will be to enable the use of BMPs for nutrient management to become standard within the industry. The study is being implemented between 2011 and 2017 in one plantation in Kalimantan, Indonesia.

The project deploys 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 management by the plantation and will contribute information for general fine tuning of nutrient best management practices. Omission plots 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 block, 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 plantation 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 the 12 blocks. Each omission plot contains sub plots for zero and full application. The plot size is a 4 x 4 palm measurement plot, within a 6 x 6 palm plot, which is bounded by a trench.

It was planned to complete the project in 2015, however it was decided to extend the project by another two years to allow thorough data analysis and wide-scale dissemination of results. All fieldwork, however, was completed as planned in 2015. Yields were not different between treatments at statistically significant levels. Yet, in the final two years, BMP1 yielded better than all other treatments, and BMP4 yielded lowest in 2015, which is commercially important. In the omission plots, the ‘zero’ yield was about 4 to 5 t/ha fresh fruit bunches less than the ‘complete’ fertilized treatment.

Through this process, estates are enabled to identify better ways to implement BMPs for yield intensification, and their decisions on larger investments in BMPs are based on practical, commercial-scale evidence.