Fertilizer is crucial for plant growth, especially for palm oils. Palm oil trees won't even bear fruit without fertilization. Fertilization is the highest cost component of palm oil plantation operations. Fertilizer efficiency is clearly a key consideration. This is why innovation in palm oil fertilization is rapidly developing.
Regarding innovations to increase fertilizer efficiency in palm oil plantations, the concept of slow-release fertilizer (SRF), or controlled-release fertilizer (CRF), is gaining increasing attention. By engineering the slow or controlled release of nutrients, the plant's nutrient use efficiency (NUE) increases. Fertilizer becomes more economical and environmental pollution is reduced. Indonesia's tropical climate, with its high rainfall, also results in high fertilizer leaching.
Several materials have been developed as SRF/CRF agents to achieve the desired nutrient release levels. These include polymers, sulfur, chemical compounds, and even compost. The characteristics of SRF/CRF agents vary depending on the material and product type. In addition to performance, the price of the SRF/CRF agent is also an important consideration.
Biochar is a renewable SRF/CRF agent and a climate solution. Biochar can persist for hundreds of years in the soil as a carbon sequestration. In addition to synthetic materials derived from non-renewable sources, biochar is an alternative SRF/CRF agent derived from renewable sources. Biomass from agricultural, plantation, and forestry waste is the main source of biochar production through the pyrolysis process. A number of SRF/CRFs with slow-release biochar agents have also begun production. This will increase biochar production, which has so far been less popular. It will also provide a solution to the biomass waste problem and be economically valuable.
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