The Usage of BIOM3G-Biofertilizer to Improve and Support Sustainability of Land System of Independent Oil Palm Smallholders

Abstract

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 N₂O 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.