Americas and Oceania Group - International Plant Nutrition Institute

Best Management Practice for Crop Nutrition of Mature Oil Palm
Project Leader: Chris Donough, IPNI SEAP, Penang, Malaysia. E-mail: crdonough@gmail.com
Project Cooperators: Sungai Rangit Plantation Indonesia and K + S GmbH, Germany
This project was started in 2011 in one plantation in Kalimantan, Indonesia, and will continue until 2015. The
main objective of this experiment is to implement, test, and refine the Best Management Practice (BMP) concept
specifically for fertilization and nutrition approaches for yield intensification in order to increase productivity,
profitability, and sustainability of palm oil production in mature oil palm plantations. Specific objectives are
to: (a) determine the fertilizer recovery efficiency at PT Sungai Rangit—for each input unit of fertilizer applied
how much nutrient is taken up by the palms; (b) determine the fertilizer physiological efficiency at PT Sungai
Rangit—for each additional unit of nutrient uptake how much additional oil is produced; (c) optimize fertilization
strategies for PT Sungai Rangit—fertilizer application amounts, splitting frequencies, adjusted to representative
conditions at Sungai Rangit for specific yield targets; (d) demonstrate a repeatable process as to how procedures
and nutrient amounts can be adjusted at commercial block scale in low soil fertility production setting to achieve
set yield targets; and (e) jointly publish the results of this project upon mutual agreement between IPNI Southeast
Asia Program, PT Sungai Rangit, and the K+S KALI GmbH. The ultimate goal will be to enable the use of BMPs
for nutrient management to become standard within the industry.
The project will deploy a two pronged approach including commercial block scale implementation of
fertilizer management strategies, complemented by block embedded omission plots. Commercial block
scale testing of application practices will contribute to more efficient fertilizer application management by
the plantation and will contribute information for general fine tuning of nutrient best management practices.
Omission plots will generate site specific information about fertilizer use efficiency for the plantation and
will be developed into a general tool for plantation nutrient management. We will use 12 commercial blocks.
Blocks will be distributed in sets of four within 2 estates of the plantation. Each set of four blocks contains two
BMP blocks where fertilizers are applied in 4 splits—one with a high fertilizer rate (BMP 1), the other with a
low fertilizer rate (BMP 2), and two reference blocks where all IPNI SEAP BMPs are deployed but fertilizer
application follows current standard practice—one with high fertilizer rate (BMP 3), the other with low
fertilizer rate (BMP 4). Fertilizers are applied as blended mixes including N-P-K-Mg-B. Omission plots are
embedded in 9 of the 12 blocks. Each omission plot contains sub plots for -N, -P, -K, -Mg, -B, and -S, zero and
full application. The plot size is a 4x4 palm measurement plot, within a 6x6 palm plot, which is bounded by a
trench. The project is currently ongoing, and no specific results are available at this time. SEA–05
Plantation Intelligence to Upscale Best Management Practice in Oil Palm, 2011
Project Leader: Julie Mae Pasuquin, IPNI SEAP, Penang, Malaysia. E-mail: jmpasuquin@ipni.net
This experiment has been planned to start in 2012 through 2015 in several plantations in Indonesia and Malaysia
to develop an approach and performance indicators that facilitate up-scaling of the Best Management Practice
(BMP) concept from commercial block scale to the whole plantation and to plantation groups. The ultimate goal
will be to enable the use of BMPs for yield intensification management to become standard within the industry.
Plantation data on management and specifically on fertilizer use and responses will be sought. Normally
this data exists in plantation data log sheets, which can be augmented—after discussion with plantation
partners—by additional sites to be managed by them using carefully-designed protocols. Establishing
an effective data management system is critical or the database soon becomes unmanageable. We will
manage routinely collected plantation production and management information. Once in GIS, data can be
analyzed with reference to other geographic data sets. Analysis will include assessment of spatial variations
in management practices, including fertilizer use, yield response to management, and to N, P, or K, and
return on investment in fertilizer. Block field data will be expanded with model data. Analyses will identify
production performance indicators for plantations, and link these to specific BMPs. Analyses will be used
to develop a simple process that can be deployed to derive these performance indicators on regular bases.
Interpretation will start with a basic set of insights and expand to more detail, leading to site-specific
performance indicators. Performance indicators are linked to IPNI SEAP Best Management Practices, and
can be generated on a routine bases using data routinely collected by plantations, and thereby are expected to
facilitate systematic deployment of BMPs in plantation management.
The general purpose of analysis and performance is to support change towards a more profitable and
intensive use of BMPs and fertilizer in oil palm plantations. Key agents of change are plantation managers
who can use this process and performance indicators to: (a) make individual and systematic selection
of BMPs specific to the local conditions that lead to sustainable intensification of their estates, and (b)
communicate with plantation headquarters the certainty of profit from existing or modified applications to
obtain specific management support from headquarters. Through this process, estates will be enabled to
identify better ways to implement BMPs for yield intensification, on full plantation scale, and across groups
of plantations. SEA–06 v
98 IPNI Interpretive Summaries