Oil Palm in Sabah  > 

African Oil Palm - Elaeis guineensis

An old African Oil Palm tree in Malaysia -
An Elaeis guineensis standing alone by a Malaysian road side.
On the distant background is the Palm Oil Mill (with 2 chimney) that process the fruits into crude oil for export.

 

Elaeis Guineensis Jacq. Reyou No.4

In 2020, the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences has selected the first oil-producing palm tree species Elaeis Guineensis Jacq. Reyou No.4 for mass production in China.
 

With good quality planting materials and agronomic practices, oil palm begins producing the oil-bearing fruit bunches as early as two and a half years after planting. While the lifespan of oil palm is at least 120 years, the crop is generally grown for 25-30 years before being replanted. This is mainly because old palm becomes too tall to harvest economically.
 

Oil palm production in Malaysia occupies around 3.7 million hectares of which over two million are in Peninsular Malaysia and the rest in Sabah and Sarawak. Production is divided between large estates managed by publicly listed companies, smaller independent estates, independent smallholders and government smallholder settler schemes.
 

Originally from West Africa, the oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) has spread throughout the 16 or more tropics countries. However, the major centre of production Malaysia and Indonesia together accounting for around 83 % of world palm oil production in 2001. Malaysia is presently the world’s leading exporter of palm oil having a 60 % market share and palm oil is second only to soybean as the major source of vegetable oil.
 

Oil palm (or Elaesis guineensis) originated from the coastal swamplands and freshwater riverines of Central and West Africa.

The Oil Palm was first introduced into the then Malaya in 1870 when it was the regarded as an ornamental plant. It was almost fifty years later that its commercial viability as an estate crop was recognized and the first commercial oil palm plantation was started at Tennamaran Estate, Batang Berjuntai in Selangor.

In the sixties, with the increasing demand for edible oils in the world market, coupled with the mounting threat of synthetic rubber, Malaysia embarked on a vast planned agricultural diversification programme. New lands were opened up and old rubber lands were replanted with oil palm. The area under oil palm cultivation was 54, 000 hectares in 1960. Today, thirty years later, the area under cultivation has reached 2,000,000 hectares.

Sixty years after the first commercial planting on an estate basis, Malaysia has become the world’s largest producer and exporter of palm oil. However, this position is over taken by Indonesia today. The production has dramatically increased from 92,000 tonnes in 1960 to an estimated 6,000,000 tonnes for the year 1989.
 

Uses of oil palm byproducts and biomass in food and manufacturing industries.
 

African Oil Palm - Elaeis guineensis
Originally from West Africa, the oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) has spread throughout the tropics countries.
 

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African oil palm

Elaeis guineensis Jacq

Found in Africa and is known as the African oil palm. Commonly known as the oil palm is the most important species in the genus Elaeis which belongs to the family Palmae. Cultivars or races of E. guineensis can be differentiated by their fruit pigmentation and characteristics; the most common cultivars being the Dura, Tenera and Pisifera which are classified according to endocarp or shell thickness and mesocarp content. 1 2 3 Dura palms Tenera palms  Pisifera palms have 2-8mm thick endocarp and medium mesocarp content (35%-55% of fruit weight) have 0.5-3mm thick endocarp and high mesocarp content of 60%-95% have not endocarp and about 95% mesocarp.

The four palms that were planted in the Botanic Gardens in Bogor in 1848 were duras; their seeds were the origin of the famous Deli dura palms that were established in Deli district in Sumatra in 1881 (Hartley,1988). The Deli duras provided the foundation for development of planting materials used by the industry in Malaysia and other oil palm growing countries. As pisifera palms are predominantly female sterile, they cannot be exploited for commercial planting. They are instead used for crossing with the dura palm to produce the tenera (DxP) hybrid (Plate 3) after M. Beirnaert discovered the single gene inheritance of shell thickness in 1939 in the then Belgian Congo (Zaire) (Hartley, 1988). This discovery was the cornerstone for the industry and it paved the way for breeding and selection and production of high yielding DxP planting materials.
 

Oil palm tree is an erect monoecious plant that produces separate male and female inflorescences.
Oil palm is cross-pollinated and the key pollinating agent is the weevil, Elaeidobius kamerunicus Faust.
In the past, oil palm was thought to be wind pollination and owing to the low level of natural pollination, assisted pollination is a standard management practice in plantations.
However, this practice was discontinued following the discovery that oil palm was insect pollinated and the introduction of E. kamerunicus from the Cameroons, West Africa in 1982 (Syed et al, 1982).
Harvesting commences about 24 to 30 months after planting and each palm can produce between eight to 15 fresh fruit bunches (FFB) per year weighing about 15 to 25 kg each, depending on the planting material and age of the palm (Plate 1).
Each FFB contains about 1000 to 1300 fruitlets; each fruit let consists of a fibrous meoscarp layer, the endocarp (shell) which contains the kernel (Plate 2).
Present day planting materials are capable of producing 39 tones of FFB per ha and 8.6 tones of palm oil and actual yields from good commercial plantings are about 30 tones FFB per ha with 5.0 to 6.0 tones oil (Henson. 1990).
At the national level, the average FFB yield in 2001 was 19.14 tones while palm oil productivity was 3.66 tones per ha.
Cultivars or races of E. guineensis can be differentiated by their fruit pigmentation and characteristics; the most common cultivars being the Dura, Tenera and Pisifera which are classified according to endocarp or shell thickness and mesocarp content.
1) Dura palms have 2-8mm thick endocarp and medium mesocarp content (35%-55% of fruit weight)
2) Tenera palms have 0.5-3mm thick endocarp and high mesocarp content of 60%-95%
3) Pisifera palms have not endocarp and about 95% mesocarp (Latiff, 2000).
 

Fresh Fruit Bunches (FFB)
 

Pericarp - outer oily flesh
Endosperm - oil-rich kernel

Elaeis guineensis is a tropical forest palm native to Africa. Grown in plantations it produces 3–8 times more oil from a given area.

Oil (triacylglycerols) can be extracted from both the fruit and the seed, crude palm oil (CPO) from the outer mesocarp and palm-kernel oil from the endosperm.

Traditionally, breeding of oil palm has focused on :
1) yield improvement in FFB and oil content
2) slow height increment
3) oil quality
4) disease tolerance.


Oil Palm industry is placing emphasis on the production of Dwarf palms (PSI type) – to reduce the palm height increment and significantly extend the economic cropping cycle.


Present Malaysian Oil Palm Industry is breeding the following 3 new type of oil palm plants :
1) Breeding for high unsaturated oil (High iodine value) (PS2 type) – to produce materials with higher proportions of unsaturated fatty acids by crosses with high iodine value Nigerian duras and E guineensis x E. oleifera hybrids.
2) Breeding for high lauric oil (PS3 type) – using high yielding Nigerian dura palms with high kernel contents
3) Breeding for high carotenoid content (PS4 type) – using selected Nigerian duras and pisiferas as well as hybridisation with E. oleifera.

 

Above : Cross section of an oil palm fruitlet. The fruit comprises outer oily flesh (pericarp)
(made up of exo-, meso- and endocarp) and an oil-rich kernel seed (endosperm).

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