Cultivation of Oil Palm

T. Sivabharath

Management Trainee'16

RSIL-OPD, Peddapuram

History

1. Oil Palm is a native of Guinea Coast of West Africa

2. Family: Palmae

3. The first plantations were established on Sumatra in 1911, and in 1917 in Malaysia.

4. In Indian context, It was introduced as a ornamental crop in Botanical garden, Kolkata, and in Andaman & nicobar Islands.

5. Oil palm requires 10 times less land than the other three major oil producing crops, soya, rapeseed and sunflower.

6. The first mill was constructed at Pedavegi, West Godavari district during 1993.

What is oil palm? Palm oil?

1. Oil Palm is the highest Oil producer among perennial Oil yielding crops.

2. It produces two distinct Oils viz., Palm Oil (extracted from meso-carp of fresh fruits) and Palm Kernel Oil (from Kernel).

3. Palm Oil has excellent health attributes. It is rich in vitamins A and E and is cholesterol free.

4. Palm Oil can be used in formulation of margarine and cooking fat such as Vanaspati. It is used in manufacture of biscuits, ice creams, soaps, detergents, and shampoos and also as frying fat.

5. Palm Kernel Oil has variety of industrial uses. eg.Lubricants

Evolution of oil palm in India

1. Systemic cultivation was done by Govern-ment of Kerala, they planted 40 ha area at Thodupuzha near Kottayam in 1960.

2. Palode-1971 commercial cultivation.

3. Establishment of NRCOP(National Research centre for oil Palm) in 1995 at Pedavegi, Andhra pradesh.

4. Now it is renamed as IIOPR-Indian Institute of Oil Palm Research.

5. Identification of potential land was done under the Chairmanship of Dr. K.L Chadha committee in 1986, identified 1.03M.ha suitable for cultivation.

6. In the year 2006, another committee under Dr. Rethinam reassessed and identified total 2 Million ha land.

Site selection

1. Important criteria for selecting the site is to make sure about the water source, transport facilty with proper roads.

2. Area should be free from water-logging

3. Soil should be suitable for bag filling, and it should be a levelled land.

4. Demand for seedlings should be within the reachable area.

5. It shouldn't be nearer to the shaded area.

6. Should have proper electricity

Life cycle of Oil Palm-Nursery

• Seed procurement is from different sources Indigenous as well as Exotic.

• Commercial cultivar is Tenera-Cross between thick shelled Dura and shell-less psifera.

• Mainly there are Two stages of nursery Viz..

Primary-for a period of 3-4 Months

Secondary- 12-18 Months

• The seeds should be sowed in poly bags with regular medium which is suitable for germination with all the nutrients.

• Culling is the process done at this stage to remove the Abnormal and Undesirable seedlings to promote 100% germination.

Transplanting

• 12-18 months old seedlings can be transplanted to the main field.

• Spacing -9mx9mx9m (Triangular method of planting)

• Soil -well drained, loam, sandy loam is most suitable.

• No of plants- 143 palms/Ha

• Ablation should be practiced to remove both the male and female flower upto 3 years to promote good growth of leaves, roots and trunk.

Irrigation

It is a water-loving perennial crop with a high yielding capacity. It requires an annual rainfall of 2000mm/year.

1. Nursery

Use Rose can for small nursery and for grown seedlings usage of drip is allowed. Adequate watering should be given in the morning as well as in the evening to avoid any shock.

2. Main field

Drip irrigation is best suited, in some cases flood irrigation and basin irrigation is allowed.

Water requirement per palm-328 litre/day

Avg requirement is 220-250 lit/day depending on the age of the palm.

Weed Management

Weeding is the removal of unwanted plants which competes with the main crop for water & Nutrition.

It can be done in three ways

• Pre-emergence spray with atrazine (1kg/ha)

• Post emergence spray with Glyphosate (1kg/ha)

• Hand weeding should be done at interspaces of bags to give free environment to get better growth.

In main nursery, spraying with Glyphosate can control the weeds.

In plantations mulching should be done to avoid weed growth around the basin, mulching with fronds, dried leaves, EFB, male inflorescence etc.

Fertilizer Management

Oil palm is a heavy feeder and it requires balanced amount of Macro & Micro Nutrients for growth & yield.

Nursery

Application of well decomposed FYM along with Neem cake, castor cake, vermiculture etc.

Inorganic fertilizer -NPK (18-46-0) 3-12 g/bag

Apart from this, Mgso4 and Borax is recommended.

Main field

NPK-1200:600:1200g/palm/year. It should be applied in four equal splits.

Boran, Mgso4 @100g/palm/year

It can be applied as broadcasting around the trunk, else supplied through drip as Fertigation.

Fertilizer recommendation may vary based on different approaches- Soil & Leaf Analysis

Nutrient deficiency and its Symptoms

Nutrient deficiency symptoms are seen due to improper or inadequate application of nutrients.

Some of the common disorders are:--

Boron Deficiency-wrinkling of leaves, Hook leaf- Apply Boron

Magnesium-Dull green or pale yellow color in older leaves-application of 2% Mgso4 at three days interval.

Nitrogen-Lime green to bright yellow on younger leaves-2% Urea spray at 7 days interval.

Pottasium-Confluent orange spotting and mid-crown yellowing. Application of potash fertilizer is recommended.

Main Field

Nitrogen

Chlorosis appears in older fronds and spread to younger tissues and midribs become bright yellow to orange

Application of organic manure & FYM will overcome this problem.

Potassium

Orange blotch on older fronds, Premature dessication. Apply 3-4kg potassium chloride and followed by leaf analysis after 6 months interval.

Boron

Hooked leaves, fish bone leaf, wrinkled leaf, bristle tip are the deficiency symptoms. Apply 200g Sodium borate/palm around the trunk is recommended.

Inter-cropping

Main objective of inter cropping is utilization of space left between the two rows of the crop and to produce more output per unit area.

• Common intercrops are banana, pulses, oilseeds can be grown in the Juvenile phase (1-3Year). Black pepper, long pepper, cocoa and fodder crop in mature phase (from 7th year onwards).

• Intercropping is allowed only when the sufficient water is available for main crop.

• Inter crop increases the Microclimate in the garden

• Leaf breaking will be less in Intercropped garden.

• It gives an additional income to the farmer.

Mulching

1. Mulching is application of plant waste material on the surface of the basin to reduce soil temperature, soil moisture, improves biological properties of soil, it suppress the weed growth.

2. Also supplies good amount of organic matter and nutrients after decomposition.

3. Biomass of oil palm garden such as fronds, EFB, mesocarp fibre, male inflorecence, POME etc.

4. It conserves moisture in the garden and reduces the frequency of irrigation.

5. It improves palm growth and FFB yield.

6. Alternative source to inorganic fertilizer and thereby reduce the fertilizer cost.

Harvesting

1. It is a very essential activity of the whole oil palm production process and oil quality depends on the Harvest.

2. It aimed at recovering whole harvested produce without loss of oil.

3. Yield is recorded in metric tons of FFB/ha/year.

4. Ripeness of the bunch based on fruit detachment-10-12 fruits will fall after ripening. The fruit color will turn to reddish orange from yellow color.

5. Harvesting can be done by using Malaysian sickle or chisel.

Diseases and control measures

1. Seed/sprout

Brown germ caused by Aspergillus niger

seed treatment with thiram/carbendazim

2. Nursery

Anthracnose, Pestalotia/curvularia leaf spot, Glomerella leaf rot, bud rot

Treatment with phrophylactic spray-Mancozeb and Hexaconazeb-0.1ml/Lt

3. Main Field

Basal stem wet rot, Bunch rot

Treatment with Tridemorph 0.1% and streptomycin antibiotic 1%.

Processing

Once the harvested bunch reaches the mill, it will follow several process

1. Sterilization

Arrests the build up of Free fatty acids (FFA) and loosens the fruits to aid easy stripping. It is done @ 130oc/hr

2. Stripping

Sterilized bunches are fed continuously into a rotary drum which separates the fruits from bunches. After stripping, the EFB will be collected.

3. Digestion

It Loosens the mesocarp from the nut to release the oil. Digester rotates at a slow speed and provision for heating at 95oc

4. Pressing

It is the core of milling process and separate the kernal without breaking the nuts.

Contd...5. Oil recovery

Crude oil obtained from this process after clarification.

6. Storage

stored in welded steel tanks and the temperature should be maintained as low to prevent quality determination @ 32-40oc.

7. Refining

The final product is Crude palm oil [CPO] which is blood red in color and consists of olein and stearin.

CPO is refined by removing the free fatty acids, color & bad odor. this process produce oil which is called RBD0Refined, Bleached & Deodorized palm oil.

8. Kernal oil

The kernal are separated from the press cake left over after extraction of palm oil. Nuts are cracked in units and sheel is separated. The kernal oil is lauric in nature and has saturated fatty acids.

Oil palm at a GlanceOil Palm: Highest vegetable Oil yielder per unit area (3-6

t/ha)

Family Palmae

Species Elaeis guineensis (African Oil Palm)Elaeis oleifera (American Oil Palm)

Source of Oil: Palm Oil: Mesocarp, Kernel Oil: Kernel

Fruit forms (Variety) Dura (thick shell); Pisifera (shell-less); Tenera (thin shell)

Economic cropping period: 25-30 years

Climatic requirements: Above 2000 mm distributed rain/irrigationMax. temp. 29-36CMin. temp. 18-24CSunshine - 5 hours & above

No. of Palms/ha: 143 palms (9 x 9 x 9 m triangular)

Nursery period: 12 - 18 months

Pollination: Insect (Elaeidobius kamerunicus)

Tree height: 20 - 30m

Leaf production /year: 32-40

Leaf length: 6 - 8 m

First harvest: 36 months after planting

Yield of FFB/ha: 15 - 30 t

No. of bunches/ Palm/year : 5 - 12

No. of Fruits/bunch: Above 2000

Avg. bunch weight: 25 kg.

Weight of Fruit: 30 gm.

Fruit to bunch: 42 - 65%

Mesocarp to Fruit: 60 - 83%

Oil to mesocarp: 77 - 81%

Kernel to Fruit: 7 - 12%

Oil to kernel: 49 - 52%

Shell to Fruit: 3 - 11%

Palm Oil yield/Palm Bunch weight/Palm x Fruit/bunch x mesocarp/Fruit x Oil/mesocarp

Suggestions

1. Expand area as per assessed potential and recommendations of Chadha Committee.

2. Micro level survey for area expansion in different States to ensure spread of suitable area with assurance of irrigation. Cover suitable area in Wastelands.

3. Aim for average productivity of 5 Tons Oil per hectare or 20 Tons/ hectare of FFB.

4. Integrated approach to crop production viz. planting material, fertilizers, inter crop; drip irrigation etc. Mulching and other organic farming practices

5. Promote value addition through diversification and effective utilization of field and factory wastes.

6. Provide production based incentive to farmers. Also consider special incentive on yield of more than 25 Tons hectare of FFB.

7. Establishment of seed garden and soil and leaf analysis laboratory.

Intercrop Young seedling

Nursery-second stage

THANK YOU