[THE USE OF OIL PALM EMPTY-FRUIT-BUNCHES COMPOST AS THE SUBTITUTE FOR NPK FERTILIZER IN THE OIL PALM PRE-NURSERY]. Compost of oil palm empty fruit bunches (OPEFB) is rich in nutriets needed to support the plant growth and offers as the substitute for chemical fertilizers. The purpose of this study was to determine the rates OPEFB compost and NPK fertilizer applications on the best suited for the growth of oil palm seedlings during pre-nursery. The OPEFB compost at 50, 100, and 150 g/pot was applied in factorial combination with with NPK at 0.0, 2.5, and 5.0 g/pot. Data were collected for seedling height, stem diameter, leaf number and leaves greenness. Higher leaf number was observed when OPEFB compost applied at 100 or 150 g/plot with or without additional NPK. Seedling height, stem diameter, and leaves greenness were increased with the application of OPEFB compost at 50 g/pot but no further increase with the additional rates. Additional application of NPK only increased the leaf greenness.
Abstract-Poverty is still an insistent problem which when confronted by humanity requires a systemic, comprehensive and synchronized approach to alleviate it. The concentration of urban and rural poverty in developing countries underpins the importance of agriculture as a poverty reduction strategy since most of the poor people depend on agriculture. Thus, improving agricultural productivity, competitiveness and sustainability may reduce poverty. This study was intended to (1) find out if sustainable agriculture, i.e., horticultural organic farming practices, could contribute to poverty reduction, (2) identify restrictive factors affecting horticulture organic farming development, and (3) formulate alternative policy intervention for poverty alleviation based on development of organic farming. The respondents were selected using purposive sampling method, comprising of 22 selfclaimed horticultural organic farmers and 22 horticultural conventional farmers. The data were gathered through a structuredquestionnaire and in-depth interview. Descriptive statistics, prospective analyses and analytical hierarchy process were used to analyze the data. The results showed that organic farming practices have potential to increase income of the horticultural farmers. Factors that constrained the development of horticultural organic farming were limited knowledge of organic practices, access to market, financial and risk management services or support. Alternative policy interventions, such as developing a linkage between producers and consumers, strengthening research and development on organic farming, enhancing dissemination knowledge of organic farming practices, and providing access to financial and agriculture management, are proposed.
Palm oil industry plays a vital role in Indonesia economy. The palm oil industry can also support sustainable development since it is based on renewable natural resources. The contribution to sustainable development is hampered if oil palm production system, especially of smallholder farmers is not sustainable. Smallholder farmers consist of almost half of the total of oil palm plantations in Indonesia. The sustainability of oil palm farming of smallholder farmers may influence significantly to the overall sustainability. The adoption of Indonesia sustainable palm oil production system by smallholder farmers may improve the sustainability of oil palm farming. This study aimed to find out if perceived environment-economic benefit differed between conventional and sustainable oil palm farmers and to uncover factors affecting the adoption of Indonesia sustainable oil palm production system. The respondents were selected using a purposive sampling method, comprising of 313 conventional smallholder farmers and 167 smallholder farmers implementing Indonesian sustainable palm oil production system. A structured-questionnaire used to gather data. Descriptive statistics and logic regressions were utilized to analyse the data. The results show that the perceived environment and economic benefit is higher for farmers adopting sustainable palm oil production than conventional farmers. Several factors which were the age of farmer, formal and non-formal education, income, total land managed, the involvement of farmer in a cooperative, and environmental management did not motivate farmers to adopt Indonesian sustainable palm oil production system. While the experience of the farmers, family size, main job, involvement in farmer‘s association, doing good cultivation practice, and plantation management influenced the adoption of Indonesian sustainable palm oil production.
Soil fertility is one of the key success factors for managing independent smallholder oil palm plantation sustainably. To improve soil fertility, the smallholder oil palm farmers depend highly on the chemical fertilizer which emits greenhouse gases N 2 O and are fragile to chemical fertilizer shortage. This dependency to chemical fertilizer and increased price of chemical fertilizer may cause some independent smallholder plantations are neglected and fruitless due to late nor absence of fertilizers. In the country with plentiful of oil palm plantations, biomass of oil palm empty fruit bunch should be considered as a sustainable source of organic fertilizers. This research examined the effect of dosage of composted oil palm empty fruit bunch enriched with multi functions multi microbial biofertilizer implanted within the soil below canopy edges of oil palm plants towards the growth and yield of oil palm plants. The treatments consisted of 3.5, 7.0, and 10.5 ton biofertilizer/ha and standard chemical fertilizer treatment as control. Each treatment was applied on ten plants. The results of this study showed that the biofertilizer application at 10.5 ton/ha improved the quality of soil better than other treatment of biofertilizer and standard chemical fertilizer. The production yield of fresh fruit brunches of 10.5 ton biofertilizer/ha treatment was 31.5 ton/hectare/year. If the oil palm production is compared to farmer's practice that produces 24 ton/hectare/year, these research results may promote better organic wastes management of oil palm plantation to better nourish the plants and improve sustainability of oil palm land system. Keywords-biofertilizer, oil palm, palm empty fruit bunch, independent oil palm smallholder
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