With palm oil prices hitting the RM 3,400 per ton mark, environmental concerns have been justifiably made against the increased clearing of forests to plant oil palm in Malaysia and Indonesia. Many NGOs and governments are not taking kindly to the clear-cut destruction of virgin jungle that threatens bio-diversity as well as endangered flora and fauna and cause air pollution through the haze. A strong lobby now exists that has begun to exert much political pressure against the oil palm plantations in Southeast Asia.

Therefore, it is time for Malaysia’s plantation firms to focus on better alternatives that will spare oil palm, Malaysia’s golden crop, from an international backlash, now with the advent of bio-fuels, through boycotts, restrictions and negative publicity.

Productivity needs to be increased in existing plantations, and companies like IOI have already shown the way to maximum possible yields through the better management and utilisation of resources.

Replanting has to be done more frequently especially when the peak of productivity has been reached when the palms are about 15-20 years old, depending on the health of the trees. At present, many plantation firms and smallholders do not replace their old trees despite lower yields but prefer to wait longer especially when the price of the commodity is now at an all-time high. Better clones are being developed and oil palm growers should take full advantage of this.

Since oil palm trees start fruiting around three years of age – and are almost a year old when transplanted onto the field from the nursery – the two-odd year wait means a loss of earnings for only a short time. Travelling around the country one can observe a high proportion of oil palm trees that are well past their prime. This is a loss to all concerned, especially when there is a government initiated cess fund to encourage replanting. Increasing the yield via replanting regularly and better management can overcome the land shortage.

The government should freeze applications to open up new land for oil palm cultivation and instead direct the firms to focus more on increasing yields from existing estates. Opening new estates brings with it a trail of problems leading to global warming, flooding, labour shortage, etc.

Today one of the major uncertainties confronting estates especially near urban areas is the onslaught of development. A large number of oil palm plantations in the peninsula have been lost to development in the last 20 years. The availability of prime agricultural land is limited, and it will be better to re-develop kampungs, idle land, new villages and expired leaseholds for urban development. Malay reserve land, old towns, inner city areas etc should be re-developed instead of bulldozing away the precious estates. Estates and forest reserves should be the last resort to development.

With proper planning and zoning, Malaysia can better utilise land usage and spare the oil palm plantations. Oil palm plantations are becoming even more valuable than before now that palm oil is being used as both food and fuel.

V. Thomas
Sungai Buloh

Source: The Sun – February 15, 2008