Biochar for Palm Oil Nurseries Part 2

In 2024, Malaysia reported that replanting their palm oil plantations reached 114,000 hectares, or 2% of the country's total area, compared to the targeted 4% to 5%. Indonesia's replanting rate is estimated to be lower, but because Indonesia's palm oil plantations are much larger, approximately three times Malaysia's, the area is larger. This situation has led to a decline in palm oil production, as palm oil productivity begins to decline after 20 years and requires replacement or replanting after 25 years to maintain productivity. Replanting should be carried out periodically, with an area of approximately 5% of the total palm oil plantation area.

Palm oil rejuvenation (replanting) requires palm oil seedlings. If estimated current replanting of palm oil plantations in Indonesia is 300,000 hectares per year (or 1.8% of Indonesia's oil palm plantation area), then with an average oil palm plantation population of 125 trees per hectare, the need for palm oil seedlings reaches 37,500,000. And with 114,000 hectares in Malaysia, the need for palm oil seedlings will reach 14,250,000 seedlings. Producing quality palm oil trees, in addition to selecting superior varieties, also includes seedling production in palm oil nurseries. Biochar can be used effectively in palm oil nurseries, as it helps improve seedling growth and health.

Biochar, made from biomass, functions as a soil amendment, improving soil structure, water retention, and nutrient availability, while also providing a favorable environment for the growth of soil microorganisms. Biochar can be mixed directly into the growing medium during nursery cultivation, with the dosage adjusted to the type of growing medium and the plant's needs. Numerous studies have shown that applying biochar to palm oil nurseries can improve seedling growth, including plant height, stem diameter, leaf number, and root dry weight. By utilizing biochar, palm oil nurseries can become more efficient, productive, and environmentally friendly.

And because the planting medium for palm oil seedlings generally uses compost, if the compost is enriched with biochar or the composting process also uses biochar, the compost quality will be even better. The advantages of the composting process using biochar include improving compost quality, accelerating the composting process, reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the form of methane (CH4) and nitrogen oxide (N2O), reducing ammonia (NH3) loss, increasing aeration (bulking agent) in composting, and reducing odor. As for the biochar material itself, it will enrich the biochar with various nutrients and the biochar is not damaged or decomposed during the composting process. So by utilizing biochar in composting, we can process organic waste more effectively, produce high-quality organic fertilizer, and contribute to more sustainable agricultural practices. 

Biochar for Palm Oil Nurseries

There are about 250 producers of palm oil seedlings in Indonesia, and with an area of the palm oil plantation reaching around 15 million hectares, these seedling producers are actually not many either. More specifically, Sumatra island has the largest area of palm oil plantations in Indonesia, making it the main economic activity in the area, because 70 percent of palm oil land in Indonesia is in Sumatra. With a cropping pattern, for example, 125 trees per hectare, 125,000 trees are needed for every 1,000 hectares or 1 million hectares for 125 million trees, while 15 million hectares means more than 1.8 trillion palm oil trees with current crude palm oil (CPO) production reaching more than 40 million tons per year. A very large number, of course. But not only the quantity factor, the seed quality factor is prioritized so that it has optimal productivity. Of course, the need for seeds does not necessarily mean millions or trillions of trees at the same time, depending on needs such as new plantings from new plantations (extensification) - which is currently being carried out in Indonesia or rejuvenation of palm oil plantations (replanting) which is carried out periodically.

One of the good palm oil seeds is determined by the quality of the growing media. The growing medium for palm oil seedlings generally consists of topsoil mixed with sand or organic matter to obtain a fertile medium. Compost or manure is often used to improve soil fertility by supplying nutrients to plants. With a tropical climate with high rainfall, nutrients can be easily washed away, besides that, low soil pH is also a separate obstacle for the growth of these seeds. By using biochar, nutrients or plant nutrients become more available, humidity and microbial activity will increase. This makes the quality of the planting medium high quality, so that the resulting palm oil seed products in the form of roots, plant height, number of leaves and plant weight are the parameters observed with the use of biochar which are also getting better.

Compared to using cocopeat, biochar has a number of advantages. Both cocopeat and biochar have uses in agriculture, but there are a number of differences between the two. Cocopeat has uses mainly as a planting medium because of its water holding capacity, while biochar besides having the ability to hold water like cocopeat also raises soil pH, holds or makes nutrients more available (nutrient retention), and also becomes a soil microbial colony so that Organic materials become quickly decomposed and absorbed by plants. Cocopeat will also decompose in a short time like compost, while biochar can survive and not decompose for hundreds of years. Under these conditions, biochar is also used to store CO2 (carbon sequestration) and obtain carbon credits with the carbon sink mechanism.

The palm oil nursery is the starting point that most determines the further growth of the palm oil in the field. The success of growing palm oil plants in the field is largely determined by the quality of the seeds planted. Seedlings that grow well in nurseries have high adaptability in the field. In practice, it has been proven by a number of studies that the use of biochar has a positive effect on palm seed products. The use of biochar in the range of 40% has become the best composition for the planting medium for the palm oil seeds. This should encourage producers of palm oil seeds to use biochar. If there is a need for biochar in large quantities for this purpose, please contact us. We can also provide technical specification data (COA) and also the biochar samples.