Careful selection of oil palm seedling, including by checking on their source, is important if the crops is to produce a good yield and quality, a seed breeder said.
“We call on farmers to first study the source of the seed they want to buy, so as to avoid the purchase of fake seeds because this will have a long-term impact on the production from the said seed,” Ang Boon Peng, a senior breeder with the Topaz R&D Oil Palm Research Station said in a press release on Tuesday (17/7).
The Indonesian government is aiming a replanting a total of 185,000 hectares of smallholders’ oil palm plantation in 2018. The drive would necessitate some 27 million oil palm seedlings and as the world’s top palm oil producer, Indonesia is self-sufficient in the provision of the seedlings, the press release, issued by Asian Agri said.
“The replanting program currently being held in a number of regions in Indonesia provides the right momentum for farmers and other palm oil industry players to not pick the wrong seedlings for planting, considering the abundance of fake seedlings being sold through the online media,” Ang said.
His research center which is under Asian Agri, produces the Series-3 Topaz seedling, a superior seedling that is the result of crossing the Dura Deli with the Pisifera variety from Africa. More than four million Series-3 Topaz seedlings have been supplied to farmers and other players by June this year, the release said.
The Series-3 Topaz seedling can produce more than 35 tons of fresh fruit bunches per hectare per year with a yield of more than 26 percent and capable of producing more than nine tons of Crude Palm Oil 9CPO) per hectare per year. This yield is three times the average yield of other seedlings in general, the company claimed.
The seedling is also more resistant to oil palm disease such as Ganoderma, it added.