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Winner of Best Oil Palm Smallholder Award uses MPOB F1

Abdul Wahab won the Best Oil Palm Smallholder Award

February 5th, 2011
by Azran Jaffar

This article has been translated and condensed from the original news article written in Bahasa Malaysia found in www.bharian.com.my

Abdul Wahab Ismail began to clear his land of eight acres (about 3.2 hectares) in year 2000 to plant oil palm after taking the advice of the General Manager of PPK Bentong, Pahang. He was 60 years old then.

After two years of planting, the efforts of Abdul Wahab began to show some results. However, the yield of the oil palm trees was not as high as expected. Abdul Wahab related that he had a lack of knowledge in oil palm management especially in the area of oil palm nutrition. He merely followed his friends’ advice in making fertilizer purchase decisions. There was once he even went all the way to Dungun, Terengganu, to buy the fertilizer recommended by his friend.

In year 2005, he met with a TUNAS Officer from the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB), Engku Norsupian Ardi Engku Nordin, who advised him on the best practices of oil palm management in field management and oil palm nutrition.

Upon receiving the advice of Engku Norsupian Ardi to use the fertilizer developed by MPOB, Abdul Wahab began to use MPOB F1 compound fertilizer in his field. He applied the compound fertilizer around the palm circles at the frequency of three times a year. The dosage for each round of application was at the rate of 2.5 kg of MPOB F1 compound fertilizer per palm.

“When he came to visit my field, the palm fronds were yellowing due to irregular field maintenance. After following his advice, the health of the palm trees began to improve. Thereafter the palm trees produced more yield which gave me a significant increase in income,” Abdul Wahab said.

In 2005, his field produced 24 tons of fresh fruit bunch per hectare year. It increased to 25 tons in 2006, 27 tons in 2007, 33 tons in 2008 and up to 37 tons in 2009.

Abdul Wahab recently received the Best Oil Palm Smallholder Award (Peninsular Malaysia) at the Oil Palm Industry Award 2009/2010, based on his outstanding achievement.

Besides his oil palm field, Abdul Wahab who is now 70 years old, manages a 22-acre plot of rubber trees, a 6-acre fruit trees orchard and a general goods store together with his family and some workers.

He is now enjoying the fruit of his labour and hopes to pass down his knowledge to his children. He also acknowledges the help of the TUNAS officer from MPOB who has helped him to achieve this success.

Good practices to achieve high oil palm yield

Mr. Tew Han Kiong at his office

This is a testimonial story of Mr. Tew Han Kiong, who lived in Kampung Parit Khalid, Tg. Sembrong Parit Raja, Batu Pahat, Johor. He had been a full-time oil palm smallholder since he was 20 years old. Together with his wife, Heather Lee Pei Ling, they raised their three children with the income generated from managing their oil palm business.

Mr. Tew managed a field size of 1.4 hectares that had a type of river silt soil series. He planted his field with Guthrie’s Dura X Pisifera (DXP) planting material in a triangular system with a distance of 9m x 9m x 9m, at 148 stands per hectare. The early stages of preparation were financed with his own working capital.

Mr. Tew implemented good management practices in his oil palm field based on the advice of Malaysian Palm Oil Board’s (MPOB) TUNAS officers. He kept proper field records, maintained a balanced fertilizer formulation program (applied MPOB F1 oil palm fertilizer at a rate of 8 kg/palm/year over 4 rounds) and made a joint harvesting and pruning rounds every 15 days.

Mr. Tew Han Kiong at his oil palm field

By implementing this good management practices, Mr. Tew saw a gradual improvement in his oil palm yield and he had even been included as a member of MPOB’s 30 Ton Club since the end of 2008. In 2009 he also earned the highest record yield of 36 mt/hectare/year.

In addition to managing his own oil palm field, Mr. Tew and his family also generated extra income by helping the neighbouring fields in field maintenance and harvesting of oil palm fruit bunches. He also practised livestock integration with oil palm under a scheme launched by MPOB in 2009, which is designed to help the smallholders to improve their income.

Although Mr. Tew was very busy with his business activities, he was also actively involved in his community. He was a Rela committee member since the year 2004, a member of the Palm Oil Dealers Association and also a member of the Batu Pahat Golf and Country Club.

Mr. Tew appreciated and acknowledged the efforts of MPOB and their TUNAS officers who helped oil palm smallholders like himself to improve their knowledge and skills in oil palm management.

Contributed by: Hasmiza Desa (PTZ Selatan 2)

Condensed and translated from: Warta Sawit, Bil. 53 (1) Jan-Apr 2013, Page 19-20.

MPOB F1 Upgraded With High Reactive Rock Phosphate

We have upgraded MPOB F1 and MPOB F1 Xtra K compound fertilizers by using Bayovar Rock Phosphate fertilizer as the phosphate source.

What is Bayovar Rock Phosphate? You can read more about this high reactive rock phosphate fertilizer by clicking this links:

1) Rock Phosphate from South America gives better oil palm yield

2) Comparing BRP with ERP

3) Bayovar Rock Phosphate Specification

An independent research trial over a 5-year period has shown that using high reactive rock phosphate fertilizer such as Bayovar Rock Phosphate can improve oil palm yield by up to 11% when compared with using medium reactive rock phosphate.

Another research paper has also compared the effectiveness of high reactive rock phosphate fertilizer against low reactive rock phosphate fertilizer applied in young oil palms. You can follow this link to download the paper found in Google Scholar.

Companies such as Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd, Boustead Plantations, Genting Plantations, Tradewinds Plantation and Felda Global Ventures are already applying Bayovar Rock Phosphate fertilizer as straight application in their oil palm plantations.

No other compound fertilizer in Malaysia, if not South East Asia, uses highly reactive rock phosphate fertilizer that has citric solubility of up to 13.5% as the phosphate source.

By introducing Bayovar Rock Phosphate into our MPOB F1 compound fertilizer, we want to help our customers to boost their crop production and achieve even higher oil palm yield.

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