Soil Conservation by Vegetative Systems in Oil Palm Cultivation

Abstract

In Indonesia, agricultural land for oil palm plantation is mostly placed on slope areas. Erosion carries down surface soil layers which are generally fertile and rich in organic matter and nutrients, causing the loss of plant nutrients. Cover crops provide protection against the destruction of soil aggregates by rain and runoff. This research aims to study the effectiveness of vegetation as soil conservation in controlling erosion and runoff. This study was a field experiment on erosion plots of 10 m × 5 m with 1-2-year-old oil palm trees planted on a 15-40% slope, which were arranged in a Split Plot Design with replications as blocks, consisting of a combination of two factors: the age of the oil palm and slope as the first factor, and conservation techniques as a second factor. The results showed that the soil conservation techniques in oil palm cultivation could reduce the rate of surface runoff, soil erosion and nutrient loss. Soil conservation with upland rice -soybean -Mucuna bracteata, in sequence (T3) in oil palm 7-25 months old and 15-25% slopes (P1) were most effective reduced runoff, increase the infiltration and preventing soil erosion and nutrient loss in all age of oil palm and slope of land.

Ecohydrological impacts of oil palm expansion: a systematic review

“…We found several studies comparing changes or evaluating soil properties in forests and oil palm(Nelson et al 2014, Allen et al 2015, Sumarga et al 2016, Kenye et al 2019, Khasanah and van Noordwijk 2019, Swails et al 2019, Merten et al 2020), agroforest usually involving rubber (Bruun et al 2013, Couwenberg and Hooijer 2013, Allen et al 2015, Guillaume et al 2016, Hermawan et al 2019, Kenye et al 2019, Khasanah and van Noordwijk 2019,Merten et al 2020), and few studies evaluating changes in soils due to the transition from pastures(Nelson et al 2014, Goodrick et al 2015, Quezada et al 2019. We also found literature addressing the impact of different management practices such as using various understory vegetation(Satriawan et al 2016, Wawan et al 2019, Rahman et al 2021 and enhancing infiltration rates(Tarigan et al 2016, Damiani et al 2020.…”

“…The runoff coefficient in oil palm plantations decreased from 63% to 50% when a combination of frond piles and silt pits was used as a mitigation strategy (Tarigan et al 2016). Different understory vegetation can be planted to prevent changes in infiltration and runoff, and losses of fertile soils that are rich in organic matter (Satriawan et al 2016). Preserving or planting riparian zones contributes to decreasing stream temperature (Luke et al 2017, Chellaiah andYule 2018a), bank erosion while increasing oil palm yield (Horton et al 2018), and to increasing microbial activity (Chelliah and Yule 2018b) near oil palm plantations.…”

“…Infiltration rates in oil palm plantations can be improved by adjusting management practices. Infiltration rates have been measured for different land use and land covers and for different mitigation techniques to prevent erosion and overland flow in oil palm (Satriawan et al 2016, Tarigan et al 2016. In Indonesia, field measurements using doublering infiltrometers found low infiltration rates in oil palm plantations with no management treatment (around 10 cm h −1 ) and rubber plantations (around 20 cm h −1 ), while high infiltration rates were obtained in secondary forest (90 cm h −1 ) (Tarigan et al 2016).…”

“…By implementing front piles as a mitigation strategy, the study reported an increase in infiltration to around 40 cm h −1 . Satriawan et al (2016) measured infiltration volume and estimated infiltration capacity (i.e. the maximum soil infiltration rate) in plots where palms were between 5 months and 2 years old, and under different understory vegetation used as a soil conservation technique to prevent erosion.…”

Enhancing soil chemical properties at plantation riparian buffer zone using leguminous cover crops: A review

“…The findings on P-uptake by Mucuna bracteate reveals that the naturally grown Mucuna bracteata took less P (6.81 mg/kg) compared to those purposely planted (10.92 mg/kg) [31]. In another study, the finding showed the potential of Mucuna bracteata as soil conservation treatment as it can take much of P which loss via sediment run-off [39].…”