Mission to Bakrie oil palm plantations in Sumatra - Indonesia - September 2009

At PT Gin, it was not surprising to identify the presence of the root pest Sufetula, for which all indications are that it is going to become the main yield-limiting factor in the coming years. It is recommended that a CIRAD entomologist with experience of this insect in oil palm plantations planted on peat in Sumatra be called in as soon as possible. Indeed, there is a great deal of work to be done on damage inventorying, studies on the pest itself (about which very little is yet known) and tests of possible control methods to be set up in order to develop control methods that are applicable on the scale of a plantation covering several thousand hectares. There is a considerable number of missing palms, requiring the gaps to be filled and the replacement of abnormal and weak original palms. A nursery has been set up for that purpose, with a forecast of around 200,000 plants to be produced for the end of 2009/beginning of 2010. From what was seen in the plots, that figure does not seem to be an exaggeration. The fertilizer schedule applied to date is appropriate, in that it tends to cover the requirements of palms neglected in the past. However, it is a provisional schedule, as it is uniform. It is proposed that an LSU structure be established with the first léaf sampling operation in August 2010, to start guiding mineral nutrition through leaf analyses starting in 2011. 863 leaf samples have been received at CIRAD from PT BSP: 629 estate samples and 234 experimental samples. They are in the process of being analysed, with priority being given to the estate samples. The total area planted to oil palm at PT BSP currently stands at 85,000 hectares, of which 28,200 hectares of immature palms and 56,800 hectares of bearing palms. (Résumé d'auteur