Oil Palm

Introduction  
Oil Palm is a native of Guinea Coast of West Africa. It belongs to family Palmae and tribe Cocoineae. Oil palm is commercially cultivated in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Nigeria, Colombia, India etc. Oil palm is the highest oil producer among perennial oil yielding crops.  It produces two distinct oils viz., palm oil (extracted from meso carp of fresh fruits) and palm kernel oil (from kernel). Palm oil has excellent health attributes. It is rich in vitamins A and E. Palm oil can be used in formulation of margarine and cooking fat such as vanaspathi. It can be used in manufacture of biscuits, ice creams, soaps, detergents and shampoos and also as frying fat. Palm kernel oil has variety of industrial uses.


Agro climatic requirements
Oil palm requires a well distributed rainfall of 2500 to 4000 mm per annum and a temperature range of 22-33° C. It requires bright sunlight for atleast five hours per day and relative humidity of more than 80 %.


Soil 
Even though oil palm comes in almost all types of soils, well-drained deep
 loamy alluvial soil, rich in organic matter with adequate water holding capacity
 is the most suitable medium for oil palm cultivation.

 Varieties
Broadly, there are three varieties viz., Dura, Pisifera and Tenera. Tenera, a hybrid of Dura and Pisifera is the ruling hybrid grown all over the world.  It is characterized by a thin shell, medium to high mesocarp (65-90%) and high oil content (16-20%).  

Planting Material 

Oil Palm seed sprouts are raised in the nursery and healthy seedlings of 12-14 months age and height of 1-1.3 m from the base with thirteen functional leaves are best suited for planting.

Spacing

Oil palm is planted in triangular system at a spacing of 9 X 9 X 9 m accommodating 143 plants in a hectare or 57 plants

 per acre.

Planting 

Planting can be done in any season. However, the best period is June to December. Pits of size 60 cm x 60 cm x 60 cmare dug up well in advance for planting oil palm seedlings. 400 g of Single Super Phosphate and 50 g of Phorate are applied and mixed with the soil at the bottom of the pit.  

 Irrigation 
Oil palm requires adequate irrigation, as it is a fast growing crop with high productivity and biomass production.  For yielding palms of above three years age, a minimum of 200-250 litres of water per palm per day is required. In older plantations, during peak summer the requirement may go upto 300-350 litres per day.

The crop responds well to drip or micro sprinkler irrigation particularly when water is limited. If drip is installed four drippers have to be placed for each palm. If each dripper discharges 8 litres of water per hour, 5-6 hours of irrigation is sufficient to discharge 160 litre per day. Drip irrigation increases the productivity by 15-20 per cent, reduces wastage of water, and requires less power/fuel per irrigation compared to conventional irrigation methods. It is important to note that any physiological stress shifts sex ratio in favour of male flowers and consequently the productivity is reduced. 

Manures and Fertilizers
The fertilizer dosage (kg/palm/year) for oil palm 

recommended by National Research Centre for 

Oil Palm for Oil Palm, Pedavegi is given in Table 2.
Table 2.  Recommended fertiliser dosage 

(kg/palm/year) for oil palm

Year	FYM	Urea	SSP	MOP	MgSO4	Borax (when deficiency is noticed)
1	50	0.870	1.250	0.667	0.125	0.025
2	50	1.740	2.500	1.333	0.250	0.050
3 rd onwards	50	2.610	3.750	2.000	0.500	0.100

Fertilizers are preferably applied in 3-4 split doses. Application of green leaf manure or compost is

advantageous, especially where the soils are poor

 in organic matter.  In oil palm plantations, where

 yield levels of 20-25 ton/ha are achieved during 5th

 or 6th year, an additional 20 % of the recommended 

dose may be applied to maintain the productivity.

Inter crop

During the initial stages of plantation in oil palm i.e., upto 3rd year, some of the light feeder inter crops such as pulses, cereals, vegetables, grasses etc., can be grown. Inter crop should be grown 1 m away from the basin in 1st year of oil palm plantation. In two-year-old plantations, it should be grown 2 m away, followed by 3 m in the third year plantations.

 Intercultural Operations
Basins of 1 m radius have to be prepared during the first year, subsequently widened to 2 m and 3 m radius during second and third year respectively.  Since the basin represents the active root zone of the palm it has be kept clean and free from weeds.  Regular manual weeding has to be taken up.  Mulching of the palm basins with dried leaves, male flowers and empty bunches can help in moisture conservation and preventing weed growth.  Contact herbicides like glyphosate @ 750 ml/ha/year can also be used for weed control. Ablation or removal of male and female flowers at the early stages of the palm i.e. upto three years has to be resorted to enable the plant to gain adequate stem girth and vigour.

Pests and Diseases
In general, oil palm is affected by only a few pests and diseases. Of late, the pests of other palm species are also infesting oil palm necessitating the farmers to go for management of these pests. A few of such pests, diseases and control measures are given in Table 3.

Table 3.  Pest and diseases of Oil Palm and their control measures

Pests/Diseases	Pesticides
Rhinoceros beetle	Lamda cyclothrin (0.015%) Metarhizium anisopliae (biocontrol agent)
Psychid	Monocrotophos (0.036%)/ Quinalphos (0.05%)
Slug caterpillar & Lead web worm	Quinalphos (0.05%)/ Lambda cyclothrin (0.015%)/Beauveria bassiana (biocontrol agent)
Rats	Zinc phosphide/Bromodiolone/Brodifacum- baiting
Bunch rot	Carbendazim (0.1%)
Basal stem rot	Root feeding with 10 ml Calixin or Tridemorph in 100 ml water
Bud rot	Drenching the crown with 0.1% carbendazim solution and topical application of carbendazim paste in the spindle cluster region after doing surgery/removal of rotten tissue

Pollination 

Oil Palm is a highly cross pollinated crop and pollination is aided by wind and insects.  Release of weevils, Elaeidobius kamerunicus after two and half year when the palms are well grown with good girth and vigour helps in good pollination and fruit set.

 Harvesting & Yield

Oil palm starts bearing from 4th year onwards and its economic life varies from 25 to 30 years.  Harvesting is an important operation which decides the quality and quantity of oil to a great extent.  If under ripe bunches are harvested, oil content will be less and recovery will be Harvesting indices for oil palm are fruits in bunch turn yellowish orange, natural dropping of 5-10 fruits from each bunch, exudation of orange yellow coloured oil on pressing of the fruit with fingers.  While harvesting, care should be taken that the stalk length should be less than 5 cm. 

A sharp chisel attached to iron rod is enough for harvesting the bunches in a young plantation.  However, for adult palms of more than 8 feet height, harvesting knife fitted to aluminium or iron pole can be used.  Light weight, 

telescopic harvesting poles are available for harvesting of oil palm bunches.

 A sharp chisel attached to iron rod is enough for harvesting the bunches in a young plantation.  However, for adult palms of more than 8 feet height, harvesting knife fitted to aluminium or iron pole can be used.  Light weight, telescopic harvesting poles are available for harvesting of oil palm bunches.

he yield of oil palm varies according to age and management. Each palm may produce 5-12 bunches per year, each having around 2000 fruits.  The average bunch weight is about 25 kg, even though bunches of weight of 70-80 kg have
 been reported.  Under average management conditions in a mature plantation
 (8 to 9 years old), yield of 15-18 tonnes of fresh fruit bunches (FFBs) per hectare is expected. Under good maintenance and management, yield upto 25-30 tonnes of FFBs per hectare is possible. 

The yield of oil palm varies according to age and management. Each palm may produce 5-12 bunches per year, each having around 2000 fruits.  The average bunch weight is about 25 kg, even though bunches of weight of 70-80 kg have been reported.  Under average management conditions in a mature plantation (8 to 9 years old), yield of 15-18 tonnes of fresh fruit bunches (FFBs) per hectare is expected. Under good maintenance and management, yield upto 25-30 tonnes of FFBs per hectare is possible. 

4.  Linkages
Fresh Fruit Bunches (FFBs) of oil palm are highly perishable and should

be processed within 24 hours after harvesting.Delay in processing adversely

affects the quality due to increase in free fatty acid content and quantity of palm oil. 

Since, FFBs 

can’t be utilized in fresh form, development of oil palm plantation should go hand in hand with development of processing facility. Oil palm marketing in the country is well streamlined, earmarking plantation zones for each palm oil mill.  Most of the factories have established collection centres at various locations for procurement of fresh fruit bunches. 

In many of the states like Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu, Mizoram & Goa, Oil Palm Plantation Act has been enacted which mandates the palm oil mills to buy FFBs produced by all the oil palm growers or their co-operative societies in their factory zone at a price not less than the price fixed by the price fixation committee.  At the same time, the oil palm growers are also under an obligation to supply the fresh fruit bunches from the oil palm plantations in that area only to the factory/mill to whom the factory zone is attached.

Government of India has been supporting oil palm cultivation through its Oil Palm Development Programme (OPDP) by providing subsidies on oil palm planting material, fertilizers, micro irrigation facilities etc. Various state governments also provides assistance for oil palm development.