2016: Analyses & Publication Partnership for Oil Palm Crop Nutrition

Objective:
Through publishing a field manual on 4R oil palm nutrition and scientific journal papers, this project aims to promote adequate and wide scale use of responsible nutrient management based on IPNI’s 4R Nutrient Stewardship Concept (right source, right rate, right time, and right place), for high yield and profit and environmental sustainability in the oil palm sector of Southeast Asia. In addition to the purpose of market development, the publications aim at highlighting the importance of scientific research and technological development on sustainable intensification of oil palm.

Timeline:
Implemented from 2016 to 2017.

Treatment overview:
IPNI implemented SEAP-05 project during 2011 and 2015 on improved nutrition management in oil palm plantation systems in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, with support from Kali GmbH. The field trial generated a significant amount of valuable information for improved nutrient management. In this project, these high quality materials are to be analyzed and published through a post-doctoral fellowship partnership between K+S Kali GmbH, the Institute of Applied Plant Nutrition (IAPN) and the Department for Crop Sciences, Crop Production Systems in the Tropics in Georg-August-Universität Göttingen. The project will produce:
(a) a field handbook on 4R oil palm nutrition for use by practitioners in the industry, and
(b) scientific publications for the scientific knowledge domain.
The topics of the scientific publications are related to:
(1) impacts of nutrient application practices on oil palm productivity and the aboveground dry matter production;
(2) nutrient management effects on bunch components and oil extraction;
(3) development of a complete oil palm nutrient budget; and
(4) effects of nutrient management practices on nutrient use efficiency indicators.

Results to date:
For the field manual, the structure and the writing style of the book have been discussed. For scientific publications, the SEA-05 dataset for the analyses is explained and transmitted. The outlines of the potential topics have been discussed and agreed by all the involving parties. Preliminary data exploration for the effects of nutrient management on oil palm productivity and aboveground dry matter production has been conducted and discussed. So far, the results suggest that adjusting the frequency and application rate of chemical fertilizers influenced the fresh fruit bunch production, and that the temporal changes in oil palm productivity were not associated with rainfall or soil water balance.

Summary:
Preliminary results suggest that nutrient management practices play an important role in determining oil palm production in our project plantations in Central Kalimantan. The outputs from this project can be useful for agronomists at plantations and planters of smallholder oil palm systems, to identify better ways to implement nutrient best management practices for sustainable intensification of oil palm.