Excessive amount of rainfall decreases oil palm yield on well-drained peatland

Abstract

Low inputs of smallholder plantation in drained peatland causes the low oil palm yield. Extreme environmental factors in tropics, such as excessive rainfall, may also reduce the yield. The research objective was to evaluate the effect of the amount of rainfall on oil palm fresh fruit bunch (FFB) yield. Two study sites with different drainage condition of well (WD) and fair (FD) drained oil palm plantations on peatland was carried out from 2018 to 2019 in Jambi Province, Indonesia. The daily rainfall was monitored using a manual rain gauge. FFB yield was monitored every two weeks, following the farmer’s practice. This study showed that the excessive amount of rainfall in WD plantation site decreased FFB yield in the subsequent weeks after the rainfall events. The higher the amount of rainfall the longer the recovery of FFB yield occurs. The lowering FFB yield was possibly affected by nutrient deficiency due to nutrient transportation through water movement during the event of high rainfall amount. The FFB yield in the FD site was not affected by rainfall, reflected the higher nutrient availability of FD compared to that of WD. Based on these findings, it is confirmed that well-drained agricultural peatland is a fragile ecosystem in terms of nutrient loss.

Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) plantation on tropical peatland in South East Asia: Photosynthetic response to soil drainage level for mitigation of soil carbon emissions

“…Following a brief period of depressed stomatal conductance and photosynthesis the palms appeared to recover, likely due to an observed proliferation of fine roots at the soil surface produced in response to the water logging. This resilience to waterlogging was also seen in the field experiments of Peralta-Lobo et al (1985) and Marwanto and Hendri (2021), who reported that excessive drainage during periods of high rainfall resulted in nutrient leaching and negative impacts on FFB yield and showed that palms could be resilient, or even benefit, from periods of inundation though this resilience may only last for a short time before restrictions on root respiration begin to impair water and nutrient uptake (Woittiez et al, 2017). It is possible that substantial lateral flow of ground water, due to operation of water control gates in drainage channels, may promote aeration of the soil water and reduce anaerobic conditions, even where WTD is within the rooting zone (Henson et al, 2008).…”

The Impact of Rainfall on Oil Palm Production: A Case Study in Berau Regency, East Borneo, Indonesia

“…High rainfall can also cause surface flow to carry fertilizers, resulting in low crop production [15,16]. Inundation stress activates the plant's defense mechanism, which initially affects the root organs to support plant growth and ultimately impacts oil palm production.…”