The Urgency of Biochar to Improve Soil Fertility in Palm Oil Plantations Amid High Crude Palm Oil (CPO) Prices

The high selling price of CPO, thus providing a large profit so that it can cover production costs, certainly does not last forever. The success of FFB production in palm oil plantations is one of the keys to the success of CPO production. The success of FFB production is related to the success of the plantation and the highest cost component in palm oil plantations is the cost of fertilizer. The high need for palm oil fertilizer for each palm tree reaches around 10 kg annually and this fertilizer is non-subsidized. Fertilizer as one of the components in the CPO production cost chain is easy to buy if the price of CPO is high or there is a big profit. But solely relying on the current high CPO price for the palm oil business operations is certainly a mistake.

And the fact is that in 2019 the price of CPO has fallen and the palm oil industry has suffered losses or almost no profit at all. The fact is that when there is a decline in CPO prices it also raises concerns for Indonesia because the palm oil industry has many strategic roles both economically, socially and environmentally. It was noted that CPO prices have continued to decline every month since 2018 compared to prices of CPO at 2017. This downward trend has touched world CPO prices since 2015. The CPO price was recorded at $448/ton in November 2018. Even though the world CPO price in 2018 2016 and 2017 averaged over $700/ton. On average, CPO prices decreased by 15-16 percent compared to 2017. Exports of CPO to Indonesian traditional markets, namely the European Union and India in 2018 also decreased compared to 2017.

And it's not impossible that this will happen again. Such as past experience in the form of accusations of an issue from the European Union Parliament which aims to prevent palm oil from Indonesia from dominating the European market, so that CPO exports decrease, a trade war that can occur at any time. While the excuses used are about deforestation, child labor practices and utilizing customary forests. This certainly should be a valuable lesson. The only way PTPN holding can work around this is by downstreaming CPO products (CPO derivatives), namely by creating an oleochemical industry. If the CPO price drops, the majority of CPO will be brought to downstream products. If the downstream product margins are not good, the majority is just CPO. Production flexibility is a strategy that makes the palm oil industry "immune" to crises. The majority of their products, both CPO and its derivatives, are for export. But downstreaming the palm oil industry is also not an easy and cheap thing that not all palm oil companies can do.

Biochar to improve soil fertility, increase fertilization efficiency so as to increase FFB productivity is the best solution. With the increase in FFB productivity, CPO production will automatically increase so that efforts to extensification through deforestation can be avoided. In fact, in addition to global CPO prices which can drop at any time, fertilizer prices can also increase at any time. This further encourages the biochar application efforts. The use of biochar in palm oil plantations is also a climate effort for carbon sequestration (carbon sink) or a negative carbon scenario to reduce CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere, so that this can generate additional income in the form of carbon credits, which have a higher value. Another factor is that in the palm oil industry or CPO production, only 10% of vegetable oil produced and 90% are biomass, while this amount of biomass has great potential as a raw material for biochar production.

And because organizationally the palm oil company is divided into a plantation division and a CPO mill division, so to facilitate operation the biochar production can be a separate business unit but still within the same company or it could be with another party. And for example empty fruit bunches (EFB) as raw material for biochar whose position is in the mill while the application of the biochar is in the plantation land. In addition to the benefits mentioned above, the production of biochar is also an effort to deal with biomass waste and produce energy that can be used for the production of CPO or in the mill. And when the CPO price drops but the production costs are low because the use of fertilizer in the plantations can be suppressed but the FFB productivity remains high, the losses experienced are also less. 

Selecting Sheep Species for Animal Husbandry

In general, there are two ideal types of sheep, namely the meat type and the wool type. The type of wool sheep is currently not in demand by breeders in Indonesia. This is probably because meat production is still a top priority and Indonesia's tropical climate is not suitable for wearing wool. Based on these conditions, the selection of meat sheep is more suitable for Indonesian conditions. Moreover, coupled with the demand for meat in Indonesia that has not been met. The demand for lamb meat for aqiqah and satay stalls/restaurants is still largely unfulfilled. In addition, the need for Eid al-Adha which is celebrated by Muslims every year can double. The need for exports is no less large, even reaching millions of head each year, such as during the Hajj season for the dam it is estimated that the need will reach 2 million heads.

Southdown sheep

Sheep of the meat or slaughter type have the following characteristics: dense body shape, wide and deep chest, short neck, and straight back and waist lines. In addition, it also has short legs and the whole body is densely muscled. Some of the sheep that belong to the meat type include Southdown, Hampshire and Oxford. Indonesian native sheep cannot be classified into one of the ideal types of the two types above. Even so, sheep in Indonesia generally tend to the type of slaughter or meat. Several sheep are considered native to Indonesia because they have long been cultivated in Indonesia, namely the thin-tailed sheep, fat-tailed sheep, Garut sheep, Wonosobo sheep (dombos) and Batur sheep. 

Dorper sheep

Improvement of genetic quality to increase livestock productivity is also carried out through crossbreeding, for example Suffmer sheep resulting from crossing Merino sheep and Suffolk sheep, then St Croix sheep resulting from crossing West African sheep with local sheep in the Virginia islands in the United States, then Katahdin sheep the result of crossing 3 types of sheep namely St. Croix with Suffolk and Shire sheep. And the popular sheep in Indonesia recently namely Dorper is a cross between the Black Head Persian sheep and the Dorset Horn sheep.

Sheep and goats, although they are quite similar, are actually (species) different. A number of regions in Indonesia have a favorite menu of sheep while other areas have goats. The Special Region of Yogyakarta is an area that has a favorite menu of lamb meat, and you can find lots of stalls or restaurants serving lamb dishes, especially satay. Uniquely in Yogyakarta, even though the name of the stall reads goat satay, the fact is that what is slaughtered or used is lamb. Meanwhile, in areas that are developing Bali cattle breeding, sheep cannot be kept or are prohibited from being raised for fear of Jembrana disease. Areas such as the provinces of South Kalimantan and East Kalimantan are examples of areas where sheep farming is prohibited because it breeds Bali cattle.

Large-scale sheep farming has been carried out in Europe and this should also be done in Indonesia. Integrating sheep farms with energy plantations is a surefire way to create these massive sheep farms. Wood from energy plantations will be a wood pellet product with an export orientation. According to Hawkins Wright's data, from 2020-'21, the demand for wood pellets for the global industry grew by 18.4%, with production only growing 8.4%, especially now with the disappearance of Russia whose volume reached nearly 3 million tons, more details can be read here. While the leaves are used for animal feed, especially sheep farming or it can also be processed into animal feed products such as feed pellets. With the global population predicted to reach 9 billion people in 2050, the need for food, especially protein such as meat, is also increasing as the population increases. Sheep farming and animal feed production are very important as part of fulfilling this food, especially protein, for more details can be read here.   

Green Economy in the Cement Industry Part 2

A number of cement plants can do production well by using only limestone and clay raw materials. This is because the material has fulfilled all the oxides needed in the manufacture of the clinker. The oxides needed are CaO (C), SiO2 (S), Al2O3 (A) and Fe2O3 (F). Limestone itself usually has a CaO (C) content of around 90% and 5% SiO2 (S). But the facts on the ground are that many cement  plants require additional materials to achieve the desired oxide composition or commonly called corrective materials. A number of these corrective materials are high grade limestone which has a CaO content of above 95% as C oxide correction, then silica sand for S oxide correction, then kaolin or bauxite for A oxide correction and iron ore or pyrite for F oxide correction.

So in general, currently the materials needed for the production of clinker are limestone, clay, silica sand and iron ore. In its development iron ore can be replaced with slag. The content of Fe2O3 (F) slag is lower than iron ore but the price is cheaper. The slag used mainly comes from the iron and steel industry, commonly known as GBFS or GGBFS. Slag is actually also an additive material that can be added with clinker and gypsum so that it becomes a product (slag) cement. In addition to other slag materials such as fly ash which are also commonly used as a additive, these two materials are commonly called cement supplement materials or SCM (supplementary cementious materials). Fly ash which is very fine does not need to be crushed anymore so it can be mixed directly with clinker and gypsum, while slag from iron or steel industry needs to be crushed again into GGBFS before being mixed with clinker and gypsum. For the need for these additives, in addition to physical aspects such as particle size, chemical aspects, namely slag chemistry and fly ash chemistry, are important parameters that need attention.

The use of SCM such as slag and fly ash above, will reduce the use, especially of fossil fuels. This is because SCM is added to clinker and gypsum so it does not require heat energy. Heat energy itself is needed in the manufacture of clinker, namely in the calciner and rotary kiln. For example, the manufacture of slag cement produces 38% less CO2 emissions than the process for the production of portland cement because less limestone is burned for the production of slag cement than is required for Portland cement. This heat energy currently still uses a lot of fossil fuels and is gradually starting to use renewable energy. Energy derived from biomass such as agricultural waste and animal manure is also starting to be used.