Export Pellets Fuel And Soil Fertility

There are some people who worry if bioenergy export especially pellets fuel is done massively so soil fertility will decrease or the soil become damaged. Why are they worried about this? Because the intended pellet fuel is EFB pellets or empty fruit bunches of palm oilpellets . Empty fruit bunch of palm oil as raw material EFB pellet is indeed currently many processed into compost or solid organic fertilizer is used on the palm plantation. If there is no fertilizer or nutrients for the palm oil trees it is true that the fertility of the soil will be damaged. Wastes of palm oil plantations such as midrib and leaves can also be composted but will be even more difficult, because  first, as it requires additional effort to collect them, whereas EFB is produced daily in large quantities in palm oil mills so there is no need to collect them. While midrib and palm leaf is the waste of plantation that spread or scattered in the plantation itself. Second, EFB from palm oil tree have high water content because previously done steamming process in CPO production. The high water content of EFB palm oil or about 60% makes it easy to compost because the material is easily decomposed into compost. While the midrib and leaves are generally dry, making it more difficult to compost.

The problems above can be overcome by grazing livestock, especially sheep. With grazing, the grass between the palm trees becomes the feed for the sheep, manure becomes fertilizer for palm oil trees and meat for human consumption. With such grazing, humans can produce meat and fertilize palm oil plantations very economically. A success story reference of this grazing is Allan Savory a biologist from Zimbabwe, whose Holistic Planned Grazing concept has been applied today to about 16 million hectares worldwide or about twice the area of our oil palm plantations. There are a number of factors of sheep grazing superiority compared to cows, which can be read on this link, this and this.

Then what about the pellets fuel from woody biomass or wood pellet from energy plantations? Trees planted as energy plantation are generally leguminoesae whose roots are able to bind nitrogen (nitrogen fixing trees), so it can be a pioneer plant and can grow almost anywhere including in barren or arid lands. The trees are even able to fertilize the land that was originally arid or the dead earth. But to get the best wood productivity the fertile and well-maintained soil (although the treatment is also very easy) should be met. Prepared and precise sheep grazing is one such treatment at the same time we will produce the most economical meat.