PLANTING oil palm on peatland has been a heavily debatable topic among oil palm planters and Western NGOs for quite some time but this issue is set to excalate to new levels this year.
Oil palm planters in Indonesia and Malaysia, primarily in Sarawak, are now challenged by a new criterion set by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) under its principles and criteria that prohibit its members (plantation companies/growers) to set up new oil palm plantations on peatland in order to obtain the RSPO certification.
A mechanism, the GHG calculator, has been put in place by the RSPO to gauge the amount of carbon emissions emitted from the “peatland” estates of the specific plantation company designed for the involved planters to “repay their carbon debt”.
Meanwhile, the world's largest crude palm oil (CPO) producer, Indonesia, is expected to extend its two-year moratorium (which expires on May 20) to halt the commercial use of a total 65.2 million ha of its primary forests and peatland in an attempt to curtail deforestation and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
Given the two scenarios, how will oil palm planters and even smallholders heavily involved with cultivation on peat soil fare under such depressing circumstances?
For Sarawak-based oil palm planters, many claim that they have been fighting a lonely battle on this issue without the full support of the Malaysian Palm Oil Association and government agencies.
They maintain that imposing a moratorium on planting oil palm on peat soil was economically and socially unacceptable especially to the rural community.
So far, 400,000ha of peat soil in the state had been planted with oil palm and these small holdings and plantations provide employment for 40,000 people.
In fact, oil palm cultivation in Sarawak currently accounts for over 1.2 million ha of arable land and has proven to be productive in optimising use of designated agriculture areas.
One could not simply wipe out plantations with over 25 years of oil palm cultivation in peat areas in Sarawak as these estates had proven to be as productive as those planted on mineral soil, said Sarawak Oil Palm Plantation Owners Association.
Furthermore, Sarawak planters have the Tropical Peat Research Laboratory Unit to thank for successfully turning the once unproductive virgin peatland into valuable palm oil plantation (resource) for the state.
The unit spearheaded by its director Dr Lulie Melling had dispelled the myth that palm oil yield was low when cultivated on peat soil. In fact, oil palm plantation on peatland can yield 25 tonnes of CPO per ha given proper management when compared with the yield from mineral soil of about 18 tonnes per ha.
Presently, some 400,000ha of peatland in the state has been planted with the golden cash crop.
Lulie had said it was hypocritical of Western NGOs to criticise Sarawak's utilisation of peatland for oil palm when the UK had already deforested 80% of its forests and the Netherland's about 175,000ha of peat soil had shrunk to only 5,000 ha.
Deputy news editor Hanim Adnan is most puzzled by the different stand taken by diferent states in Malaysia over the issue on the cultivation of oil palm on peatland.
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Abdul Wahab Ismail began to clear his land of eight acres (about 3.2 hectares) in year 2000 to plant oil palm after taking the advice of the General Manager of PPK Bentong, Pahang. He was 60 years old then.
After two years of planting, the efforts of Abdul Wahab began to show some results. However, the yield of the oil palm trees was not as high as expected. Abdul Wahab related that he had a lack of knowledge in oil palm management especially in the area of oil palm nutrition. He merely followed his friends’ advice in making fertilizer purchase decisions. There was once he even went all the way to Dungun, Terengganu, to buy the fertilizer recommended by his friend.
In year 2005, he met with a TUNAS Officer from the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB), Engku Norsupian Ardi Engku Nordin, who advised him on the best practices of oil palm management in field management and oil palm nutrition.
Upon receiving the advice of Engku Norsupian Ardi to use the fertilizer developed by MPOB, Abdul Wahab began to use MPOB F1 compound fertilizer in his field. He applied the compound fertilizer around the palm circles at the frequency of three times a year. The dosage for each round of application was at the rate of 2.5 kg of MPOB F1 compound fertilizer per palm.
“When he came to visit my field, the palm fronds were yellowing due to irregular field maintenance. After following his advice, the health of the palm trees began to improve. Thereafter the palm trees produced more yield which gave me a significant increase in income,” Abdul Wahab said.
In 2005, his field produced 24 tons of fresh fruit bunch per hectare year. It increased to 25 tons in 2006, 27 tons in 2007, 33 tons in 2008 and up to 37 tons in 2009.
Abdul Wahab recently received the Best Oil Palm Smallholder Award (Peninsular Malaysia) at the Oil Palm Industry Award 2009/2010, based on his outstanding achievement.
Besides his oil palm field, Abdul Wahab who is now 70 years old, manages a 22-acre plot of rubber trees, a 6-acre fruit trees orchard and a general goods store together with his family and some workers.
He is now enjoying the fruit of his labour and hopes to pass down his knowledge to his children. He also acknowledges the help of the TUNAS officer from MPOB who has helped him to achieve this success.
SINGAPORE: Malaysian palm oil futures rose to a one-week high on Wednesday, pulling away from near five-month lows plumbed earlier in the week, as investors eyed a potential fall in stocks in the world’s second-largest producer of the edible oil.
Malaysia’s April palm oil stocks likely fell 6.1 per cent to 2.04 million tonnes, with domestic consumption and exports outstripping a rise in output, a Reuters survey of five plantation companies showed.
Industry regulator the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) will release official data stocks and output on Friday.
"The market is a bit bullish on the coming MPOB stocks data.
On the physical side, there is some tightness in terms of cargoes for nearby months and people have come to notice this tightness," said a Singapore-based trader with a global commodities house.
