Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq) is an economically important crop in South-east Asia, especially in Malaysia and Indonesia. In Malaysia, oil palm is the most profitable commodity in the agriculture sector. The future of oil palm lies in obtaining a higher yield that is aligned and directed towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) by 2030. Elaeidobius kamerunicus was introduced into Malaysia during the late 1980s to boost the production of oil palm fruit bunches. Almost 40 years since the introduction of E. kamerunicus, significant improvements have been witnessed in the increase of oil palm yield. Nevertheless, the current concern in the oil palm sector is regarding the decreasing of fruit set that may be affected by E. kamerunicus. The weevil population plays a crucial factor in the pollination of oil palm. Several factors had been reported to reduce the weevil population such as natural enemies, interaction with local insects, pesticides, climate and male inflorescence. These factors have been addressed in this article based on various studies conducted since the first investigation in Cameroon by Syed in 1977. The role of the pollinator in terms of its biology, behaviour and pollination mechanism is also described in this article, together with the population management of the weevils. This review article will provide a summary of the current state of Elaeidobius kamerunicus in Malaysia and other neighbouring oil palm-producing countries.
This study was conducted to evaluate laboratory rearing of Elaeidobius kamerunicus through observation of its life development and survivability on an artificial diet and anthesising male inflorescence of oil palm as the natural feed. The experiment was the three adopted diets compared with rearing on natural feed toward the survivability and life development of reared larvae Elaeidobius kamerunicus. The AMI of oil palm was the successful diet for the survival of weevil larvae with around 11 days to develop from egg to adult. The improved natural feed is calculated to have a longer time for 50% mortality than the first natural feed, where it had double the time requirement. Moreover, improving the natural feed rearing method had increased survivability from around 20% to almost 50%. Furthermore, they improve natural feed enables shorter life development at 10 days. Thus, this study provided the method for rearing E. kamerunicus through the natural feed for better key survival and management.
Rearing of Elaeidobius kamerunicus, the pollinator of oil palm, requires the anthesising male inflorescence of oil palm as the breeding and feeding ground. Various studies have reported on the weevils utilising the male inflorescence as feed to sustain its development. However, for routine rearing, the use of male inflorescence is inconvenient as it has to be continuously collected from the field. Thus, this pioneering study was conducted to determine the nutritional composition of anthesising male inflorescence of oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) which is essential for E. kamerunicus life development. First, proximate analysis was performed to determine the nutritional composition of anthesising male inflorescence. Next, the nutritional profiles of amino acids, fatty acids and carbohydrates were determined and analysed separately. The average proximate analysis of anthesising male inflorescence of oil palm recorded a high moisture content of 75%, followed by carbohydrate, protein, fat and ash. The amino acid profile revealed the presence of 18 amino acids with lysine having the highest content. The spikelet also recorded a total of 32 fatty acids with oleic acid recording the highest value. Nevertheless, the carbohydrate profile was not determined as its presence was in trace amount only. This study provided new knowledge and reference standard on the nutritional composition of anthesising male inflorescence of oil palm that is essential for E. kamerunicus.
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