International Journal of Oil Palm

Irrespective of soil and climate, fertilisation is essential in oil palm cultivation if growth and production potential is to be achieved. It is also necessary for maintaining and improving soil fertility, which is very often a limiting factor on tropical soils.

Oil palm is usually very responsive to fertiliser application. However, significant differences in yield responses between distinct pedo-climatic areas, as well as differential nutrient requirements between mature and immature stages are observed. Manuring generally represents the largest, single component of production cost, accounting today frequently for around 65% of expenditure for maintenance cost in South East Asia, while in the sixties accounted for 54% according to Piggott (1968) in Malaysia. Compared to total production and management cost, fertiliser remains at the first rank (Baskett et al., 2002). Actually scientific methods for management of mineral nutrition that give highly satisfactory results if correctly applied are available. Such management approaches are generally based on the response of the palms, aiming at determining the rate of fertiliser and the nutrient level in the leaf to achieve the best performance. The most performing plantation companies are also looking for a best balance between production level and economic factors. This can be achieved by taking into consideration economical parameters (like the price of palm products and the cost of applied fertilisers) and scenario about their trends, as the time lag between fertiliser applications and the oil palm response can be up to 3 years. Beside these two main factors for fertiliser management, environmental impact of agricultural practices are becoming a major concern for environmentalists and consumers, and it is assumed that this aspect will have to be taken into account in oil palm manuring. Relatively few studies have been carried out on the relation between mineral nutrition of the palms and water management, especially for irrigated palms. Some past results will be presented.