Greener palm oil possible without sacrificing profit

Palm oil production can be made less environmentally destructive by reducing the use of fertilisers and avoid using herbicides.

Palm oil production is linked as been linked to large-scale destruction of forests and the decimation of orangutan populations. Photo: Icaro Cooke Vieira/CIFOR

Palm oil, the most widely used vegetable oil in the world with total sales in 2018 topping US$30 billion dollars, contributes greatly to the GDP of several tropical countries. But its production has been linked to large-scale destruction of pristine forests and the decimation of orangutan populations.

“Palm oil is an important commodity, but it raises concerns over the destruction of tropical rainforests that are replaced by its monocultures,” says Kevin Felix Arno Darras, study author and postdoctoral researcher at Germany's University of Göttingen. “We [should] satisfy demand for vegetable oil with profitable production systems, preserve habitats of conservation importance, and mitigate the negative effects of oil palm plantations on the environment.”

The large-scale, multidisciplinary study on palm oil plantations, in the Jambi province in Indonesia, compared the yield associated with decreased versus conventional use of fertilisers, and with mechanical versus herbicide-based weed control.

Two years after the initiation of the study, the researchers observed encouraging preliminary results. In the treatment with reduced fertiliser and mechanical weeding, the harvest was not different from the conventional treatments.

A significantly lower usage of fertilisers (about 50 per cent less than conventional levels) and non-herbicide treatments does not affect yields.

The researchers note that reduced use of fertilisers had no detrimental effect on soil nutrients. Also, plants, aboveground arthropods, and belowground animals were positively affected by mechanical weeding, compared with herbicide-based weeding. (SciDev.Net)

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE

Scientists develop biodegradable plastic from cassava starch

Researchers develop bioplastic using cassava starch and ozone gas.

Impacts of low-dose exposure to antibiotics unveiled in zebrafish gut

Low concentrations of antibiotics in the environment can have major impacts on gut bacteria.

Secrets to climate change adaptation uncovered in the European corn borer moth

Genes may allow some insects to adjust their biological clocks, survive shorter winters.

Microbe diversity is key to healthy coastal ecosystems

Scientists study clams and seagrass meadows along tropical coasts.

Harvesting genes to improve watermelons

Watermelon is one of the world’s most popular fruits. But there are six other wild species of watermelon, all of which, however, have pale, hard and bitter fruits.

Scientists probe the limits of ice

How small is the tiniest possible particle of ice? According to new research, the smallest nanodroplet of water in which ice can form is only as big as 90 water molecules -- a tenth the size of the smallest virus.