The Faculty of Agriculture Engineering of Bogor University of Agriculture (IPB University) has managed to develop a technology to produce biofertilizer from the empty palm fruit bunches, which can significantly substitute the chemical fertilizer in oil palm cultivation.
The IPB University’s Fertilizer Workshop Team Head Erliza Hambali said that with the new technology of organic fertilizer from the empty palm bunches, companies can improve the efficiency of their palm oil production as it can reduce their fertilizer cost by up to 20 percent.
According to her, the largest cost needed to cultivate oil palm trees is the cost of fertilizer, which can account for around 80 percent of the total operational cost of oil palm plantations.
“The use of carbon from the empty fruit bunches can reduce fertilizer cost in oil palm plantations up to 20%. The carbonization process of the empty bunches will produce charcoal as the main product (30%) , vinegar wood (6%) and tar (3%) as byproducts,” Erliza said on Tuesday, 14 November 2023,
According to Erliza, the nutrient and mineral contents in the charcoal from the empty palm bunches are N, P, K, Mg and other minerals. Those elements are badly needed by oil palm trees to grow well and produce large and healthy fruits.
“In 2022, Indonesia has a total oil palm plantations at around 15.4 million Ha, which can produce around 47 million tons of empty palm bunches. Currently, the empty bunches are only used for compost, biomass energy source and others,” she said.
Meanwhile, the Lancang Kuning University’s (ULK) Rector Junaidi said that they will push lecturers of its faculty of agricultural engineering to deepen their researches on the technology of carbonization that will be used by oil palm growers in Riau province.
“We hope we can apply this technology here in Riau, which has the largest oil palm plantations in Indonesia. Lecturers of ULK’s Faculty of Agricultural Engineering are involved in this technology research, and they should further deepen their research on the carbonization technology,” he said. (*)
Source: sawitku.id
