LAND PREPARATION, PLANTING AND

AMELIORATION OF GROWING
CONDITIONS FOR HIGH SUSTAINABLE
OIL PALM YIELDS
Patrick Ng HC, Tasren N. Mahamooth and Goh KJ

Advanced Agriecological Research Sdn. Bhd.

2017 MOSTA OP Best Practices Workshop

12-14th September 2017
Kinta Riverfront Hotel, Ipoh Perak

Kuala Lumpur 1
Boustead
– Kepong Bhd. Plantations Bhd.

Introduction

 1 billion people every

12–14 yrs since 1960
 7 billion in 2012
 7.5 billion people
(Aug-2017)

Rapid population growth Despite Green Revolution

impacts on demands for: and expansion of
Palm Oil agricultural lands …
 Food  842 million people go hungry
 Water Industry every night
 Fiber  Stable income  Poverty the main reason; not
 + Std. of living insufficient food supply 2
 Energy Source: United Nations

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 Introduction
Planted hectares

1M 2M 3.4 M 4.9 M

 Need to maximize yield

This paper discusses on: “Recipe for High
Sustainable OP Yields during:
 Land Preparation  Amelioration of
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 Planting Growing Conditions

Yield Definitions & Site Yield Potential (SYP)

Source: Goh et al., 2014

~18.5 Potential Yield: Theoretical maximum yield

t/h/y Oil
1) Yield defining factors: Physiological parameters

~45 t/h/y Genetic Yield Potential : Max. yld. obtainable without any
FFB environmental, agronomy and management constraint
- Small trial plots
- < 1% of area 2) Yield limiting factors: Climate, soil, terrain, density

~35 t/h/y Site Yield Potential : Maximum yield realizable, given a

FFB set of site characteristics
3) Yield reducing factors: Mainly agromanagement e.g.
Yield Gap nutrition, drainage, canopy damage etc.
~ 20% 4) Yield loss factors: Mainly management e.g. poor
harvesting standards, recovery etc.
~28 t/h/y 4
FFB Actual Yield: Yield that can be recovered from the field

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Recipe to obtain high yields …
Land Preparation / Planting
“To obtain vigourous, uniform palms at maximum stand
with good legume covers”
Amelioration of Amenable Ingredients
growing conditions  Good ground cover / legumes
Not so amenable  Good infrastructure / drainage
Ingredients
 Vigorous / Uniform seedlings
 Soil / Terrain
 Planting pattern
 Climate / rainfall
 Optimum Density / full stand
 Potential of Planting
 Pest & Diseases
materials Not possible to discuss all.
Genotype x environment  Good early nutrition
Just
Different treatment may selected key points.
be required for different environment
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Recipe to obtain high yields …

Major yield limiting factors

Often, SYP for a site Palm factors:

cannot change  Choice of planting materials
significantly after  Uniformity, high yield
Land preparation
and Planting

SYP
Climate factors: Agronomic factors:
 Amount of rainfall  Planting density
 Rainfall distribution  Planting pattern
 Effective soil volume
 Terrain etc.

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Importance of Initial Planting Quality
Good Planting
FFB yield > 30 t/ha

73% chance
2% chance
Source: Goh et al., 1994 1st Yr Yield*
> 20 t/ha

* 37 – 48 Mths 1st Yr Yield*

(4 Yr Old) < 10 t/ha

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1 2 3 4 years
Poor Planting

Land Preparation (Replanting / New Planting)

Replanting in Spanish = Renovación  Topography

Design required before planting similar  Roads

to design of house / housing area prior  Drainage
to construction / development.  Terraces ?
 Housing / Infra

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Courtesy of Camilo Tobon

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Land Preparation (3D Laser Scanner / Drones / LIDAR)

Land Preparation (Drones and DTM)

Source: Tey et al. (2017)

Source: Tey et al. (2017) 10

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Land Preparation (Infrastructure / CSR)
Source: C. Chermin
 Adequate quality housing to
attract employees / workers
 Facilities (clean water etc.)
 Villages
Slope accentuated for illustration purposes

Harvesting
Source: KLKCare (2016)
paths

 Orientation of roads, drains

 Orientation of harvesting paths
(perpendicular to terrain)
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Source: KLKCare (2016)  Conservation terraces

Palm Planting (AA+MulchTM for 1st yr planting)

 One-off fertilizer application

 Every palm gets its share of
fertilizers
 Reduce moisture loss via View of extensive area using
AA+MulchTM on sandy soils
evaporation
 Reduce risk of phytotoxicity
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Palm Planting (Option for large planting)
 Incorporate some controlled release fertilizers (CRF) into
planting hole at time of transplanting
 Amount and type of CRF depends on strategy / response
 Between the first 3 to 6 months only; else too costly (at
this juncture) or not enough nutrients provided / balance
 Objective: Minimize risk of delayed initial
fertilizer applications.
Ensure good initial palm nutrition.

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Good Ground Covers (Legumes)

 Objective: To achieve full ground cover by 5-6 months after land
clearing with thick legumes and maintain legumes way beyond maturity
 Although P immobilized small, huge return from Organic-P
resulting in normally small P response for 2nd Gen. 0 month

Nutrients available at time of replanting and nutrients 3 weeks

47 months
immobilised by legumes70
(Ngmonths
et al., 2010)
700 60
600
N P
500
P (kg/ha)

100%
N (kg/ha)

400
65% 40 100% 6 weeks
300
20
200 37%
100
19% 0
0
1400 160
K 140
Mg
1200
100% 120
1000 100%
Mg (kg/ha)
K (kg/ha)

100
800
80
600
60
400
40
200 20
17% 23%
0 0
#1
Oil palms at time of replanting Immobilized by MB
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Note #1: Khalid and Basri (2004)
12 months 5 months
Fixed by MB 2 months

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Impact of Ground Covers (Mix Legumes)
 Compare (A) Mixed legume system of M. bracteata
(MB) + P. javanica (PJ) vs (B) Pure MB

A B
B

Source: AAR Unpublished

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Trial area: 12 Months Old Same area: 47 Months Old

Impact of Ground Covers (Mix Legumes) 100

Ground coverages (%)

80

60

40

20

0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Month after planting

Dry Wt (g m-2) of green LCC at different periods

6th Month 12th Month 21st Month
System
MB PJ ∑ MB PJ ∑ MB PJ ∑
Mean 34 154 188 125 138 263 632 2 634
Mix
SE 44 58 64 99 28 99 101 4 98
Mean 118 25 143 210 57 267 749 2 751
Pure 16
SE 41 7 36 73 11 62 128 1 128

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Post Planting Quality Control

Ground truthing required; follow up actions

 Design check
 Rectification
(Variation Order?)
 Supplying to get
full stand
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Amelioration of Growing Conditions

 Mainly to improve soil parameters
 Acid sulphate,
alluvial, organic
soils …
 Flushing
 Drainage
Weirs to control water
 Control water level
Awaiting
flushing in acid
sulphate area

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Main canal & water gate

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Amelioration of Growing Conditions
 Effect of liming with GML on soil parameters (Rengam
series) and leaf nutrients (Bungor series)

AAR
Leaf Nutrients unpublished

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T1: Nil T2: Std. Compound (SC) T7: SC + 5.5 kg/p GML

Amelioration of Growing Conditions

 Use of Mill By-products

EFB Mulching

 Minimum 30 t/ha EFB. Poor soils, use 40-80 t/ha.

Nutrient Element N P K Mg

Kg/ha for 30 ton/ha EFB 78.8 8.78 289.1 13.1

Fertilizer equivalent (kg) AN RP MOP Ks

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Kg/palm (136 p/ha) 1.73 0.49 4.27 0.59
1: Teoh and Chew (1984)

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 Amelioration of Growing Conditions
 Effect of increase microbial
biomass on palm growth and
yield being investigated

Frond heap Inter-palm

Source: Ng et al., 2013

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Amelioration of Growing Conditions

 Erosion plot monitoring effect of ground cover on
runoff, soil sediment and leaching losses

Run-off and eroded

sediments

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Plot with good M. bracteata Bare ground plot

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 Concluding Remarks
Recipe to Obtain High Sustainable Yields =
Right ingredients for success:
Good design of +  best palms planted out
plantations:
 planting pattern  correct fertilizer strategies
 density  optimal canopy
(Gawthorn/CAD)  ground cover management
 infrastructure  effective harvesting standard

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Concluding Remarks
 Recipe and ingredients not new
 Ingredients complement each other, not to be
taken individually
 Differ with site; Adjust recipe to ‘local taste’ (site
specific)
 Ingredients / tools widely available including in
literature

 Attempt to ensure optimum conditions for

growing oil palms, minimize negative
impacts on the environment, ensure highest
nutrient efficiency with the aim to achieve
highest productivity and profitability 24

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THANK YOU

Kuala Lumpur Boustead

– Kepong Bhd. Plantations Bhd.

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