Biochar as a Solution to Deforestation in Indonesian Palm Oil Plantations

Palm oil trees are not native to Indonesia but come from West Africa and were brought by the Dutch colonialists in the mid 19th century. At first they brought 4 grains and planted them in the Bogor Botanical Garden which is now a palm oil monument. The first palm oil plantation were established in Indonesia in the early 1900's in North Sumatra. The development of the palm oil industry and its subsequent plantations is very rapid, especially in the last 10 years and it is currently estimated that the area of Indonesian palm oil plantations reaches 15 million hectares. As the largest vegetable oil-producing plant in the world and the area of palm oil plantations is also the largest in the world, of course, palm oil has a strategic value in the Indonesian economy. The average rate of growth for Indonesian palm oil plantations is 6.5% per year or the equivalent of about 500 thousands up to 1 million hectares per year for the last 5 years, while the increase in palm oil fruit production or FFB (fresh fruit bunches) is only 11% in average. In fact, the largest increase occurred in 2017 which increased by 2.8 million hectares. From 2015 to 2019, the total area of palm oil increased by 3.7 million hectares. Extensification or expansion of palm oil plantations turned out to be many "accused" and became the world's spotlight as from the conversion of forest land functions, so that there was a lot of deforestation to be converted into palm oil plantations.

Pressure from the European Union in particular, due to these conditions worsened the image of Indonesian palm oil which in turn affected the selling price of palm oil, both CPO (crude palm oil) and its derivative products. Improving the image is also not easy. One of the effective measures is to stop the extensification effort so that forest land remains as forest land and does not turn into palm oil plantations. Biochar can be an effective solution to this problem. By increasing the productivity of fresh fruit bunches (FFB) from the usage of biochar, new palm oil plantations do not need to be opened again. Assuming an average productivity increase of 20% occurs, CPO production will also increase by 20% or equivalent to 2 million tons. The increase would be equivalent to new land clearing of more than 2 million hectares. Certainly not a small land area. With the 20% increase in production, it is very likely that the national needs for CPO needs have been met and the same goes for the export market.

With the extensification of palm oil land of more than 1 million per hectare every year but the increase in palm oil fruit (FFB/fresh fruit bunch) production is only 11%, it is certainly less attractive and must be avoided, especially when the world's attention on deforestation is getting stronger. This also indicates the low productivity of the palm oil plantations. In fact, by improving soil quality, the productivity of palm oil fruit can be significantly increased and the clearing of new land for palm oil plantations can be avoided. Biomass wastes in palm oil plantations and in palm oil mills can be used for the production of biochar.

In palm oil mills, this biomass waste is easier to process in large quantities, especially empty fruit bunches (EFB). An average palm oil mill can produce 200 tons of waste per day of EFB. Meanwhile, in palm oil plantations, biomass waste, such as palm fronds, leaves and stems, is the raw material for the production of biochar. Palm oil trunks even have a lot of negative impacts when they are not treated adequately or are only left to rot in the plantation, giving rise to horn beetle pests, for more details read here. Optimizing the utilization of biomass waste has multiple benefits, not only preventing environmental pollution by the waste, and can be described as the scheme below.

In terms of technology, biochar production technology is also very varied, from simple technology (low tech, low cost) that is cheap to advanced high technology that is efficient, precise process control but at a higher price. In the palm oil mill, it will be effective to use high technology so that it can be integrated with the operations of the palm oil mill. The excess energy from the pyrolysis process will also replace boiler fuel which has been using fiber and palm kernel shells (PKS). There are indeed many advantages of palm oil mills when doing the production of biochar, for more details, please read here. Production of biochar with empty fruit bunches or EFB biochar is also more profitable than EFB pellets, a more detailed explanation can be read here. Meanwhile, for people who have palm oil plantations as part of society palm oil producers (Plasma) or independent plantations, they can use simple technology (low tech, low cost) for the production of biochar. Biochar production in a simple way can also take advantage of excess energy for various small business activities such as those carried out in Tanzania, Africa. In this way, the community in addition to producing biochar also gets a source of energy including reducing the use of firewood which can be obtained from cutting down trees in protected forests or reducing deforestation pressures.

Fertilizer is the highest cost component in the palm oil plantation operations. Besides being able to increase the productivity of palm oil fruit or FFB, Biochar can also reduce the need for the use of fertilizers. An increase in soil pH makes nutrients easily absorbed by palm oil trees and also increases soil microbial activity which increases fertility is one of the benefits of using biochar. And when the performance of the productivity level of palm oil plantations has been able to be achieved and maintained, a number of other improvements can also be made. From the industry point of view, raw materials are a vital factor in terms of availability, continuity of supply and quality, including palm oil mills. Moreover, the plantation aspect of CPO production holds a portion of 80% while the factory or the mill aspect is only 20%. This confirms that the plantation aspect plays a vital role in the supply of these raw materials, so that efforts to maximize productivity, including maintaining productivity level performance, are very important and a top priority. Meanwhile, the change in palm oil plantations from monoculture to polyculture (mixed plantation) is one of the further improvement that can be made. Extensive monoculture plantations have the potential to be susceptible to disease, so they need to be avoided. Technically, how much monoculture area is still effective, especially for palm oil plantations, there are no convincing findings.