Transferring Oil Palm Plantation Best Management Practices (BMP) from Southeast Asia to West Africa

IPNI-2010-GBL-53

IPNI Southeast Asia demonstrated large success of BMP in oil palm growing environments in Southeast Asia. Today, oil palm growers invest in existing plantations elsewhere in the world, including in West Africa. Can BMP, developed in Southeast Asia, be deployed to intensify oil palm plantations in these regions? In environmental analyses IPNI demonstrated similarity of poorer oil palm environments in Kalimantan with other regions in Southeast Asia, in Latin America and also in West Africa. Read more


Year of initiation:2010
Year of completion:2016
Map:

Interpretive Summary

Best Management Practices (BMP) in oil palm plantations were introduced in Ghana, West Africa in 2013. The study aimed at identifying and implementing improved agronomic management practices that meet site-specific needs and opportunities for enhanced productivity, profitability, and environmental sustainability of oil palm production by providing assistance in training, agronomic and economic data analysis, and planning for wide-scale implementation of BMPs at a commercial scale.

The oil palm sector in West Africa is rapidly developing, yet its plantations are under-performing with yields as low as one-third of the optimum. In 2013, Best Management Practices (BMP) were implemented in oil palm plantations in Ghana, West Africa with the aim of identifying and implementing improved agronomic management practices. These practices meet site-specific needs, and increase opportunities for enhanced productivity, profitability, and environmental sustainability.

The oil palm sector in West Africa is developing extensively, yet the plantations are under-performing, with reduced yields as low as one-third of the optimum. In 2013, Best Management Practices (BMP) were implemented in Ghana, West Africa, with the aim of identifying and implementing improved agronomic management practices that meet site-specific needs and opportunities for enhanced productivity, profitability and environmental sustainability.

The oil palm sector in West Africa is developing extensively, yet the plantations are under-performing, with reduced yields as low as one-third of the optimum. The project is applying the Best Management Practices (BMP) approach to identify and implement improved agronomic management practices that meet site-specific needs and opportunities for enhanced productivity, profitability, and environmental sustainability in palm oil plantations in Ghana.

The oil palm sector in West Africa is developing extensively, yet the plantations are under-performing with low yields (averaging about one-third of the optimum). In 2013, Best Management Practices (BMP) were implemented in three plantations in Ghana, West Africa, with the aim of identifying and implementing improved agronomic management practices that meet site-specific needs, and to provide opportunities for enhanced productivity, profitability and environmental sustainability.

IPNI Southeast Asia demonstrated a huge success of BMPs in oil palm growing environments in Southeast Asia. Today, oil palm growers invest in existing plantations elsewhere in the world, including in West Africa. In environmental analyses, IPNI demonstrated similarity of poorer oil palm environments in Kalimantan with other regions in Southeast Asia, in Latin America and also in West Africa.

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Updates & Reports

2013

Project Description


Publications

cover
Adapting Oil Palm Best Management Practices to Ghana: Opportunities for Production Intensification T. Rhebergen, T. Fairhurst, S. Zingore, M. Fisher, T. Oberthür, and A. Whitbread
Better Crops With Plant Food
2016-4, page #12

Harvested fresh oil palm fruits in the IPNI BMP Ghana Project

Project Leader

Shamie Zingore, International Plant Nutrition Institute (IPNI)


Project Cooperators

Thomas Oberthur


IPNI Staff

S. Zingore


Location

Asia \ South-Eastern Asia

Africa \ Western Africa


Topics

nutrient use efficiency

oil palm