New seedlings will see ‘highest’ palm oil yields in the industry

A subsidiary of the world’s second largest palm oil plantation company has cultivated a new palm planting material allowing an increase of oil yields to the highest levels in the industry.

Smart Tbk, a subsidiary of Golden-Agri Resources, has registered two clones of high-yielding oil palm plant material in Indonesia’s Catalogue of Seeds, receiving approval for use from the Ministry of Agriculture.

Labelled Eka 1 and Eka 2, the new seedlings will allow the company to increase yields without increasing land use. Under optimal conditions, current palm oil yields stand at around 8 tonnes per hectare per year. Smart Tbk’s seeds could increase that number to 10 tonnes of crude palm oil per hectare per year.

President Director PT SMART Tbk, Daud Dharsono, said: “This kind of breakthough is at the heart of our intensification efforts, which we see as essential to delivering sustainable production of palm oil to meet a growing global demand. We will continue to identify new technologies and accelerate the adoption of the latest modern techniques to enhance not only our own sustainable agricultural practices, but those of the industry as a whole.”

The new seedlings were developed naturally through a conventional selection programme and tissue culture from elite palms. They are the result of two decades of collaboration between SMARTRI and Smart’s Biotechnology Centre.

Head of Smart’s Plant Production and Biotechnology Division Dr Tony Liwang said: “Tissue culture helps us propagate planting materials through a non-GMO process that produces more crude palm oil, and in the near future, it will help to produce planting materials that make better use of nutrients and are more resistant to both disease and drought. With the success to date of our tissue culture programme, we can expect to see substantially higher yields with Eka 1 and Eka 2, and greater oil extraction levels from the fruit itself.”

At prime maturity, the Eka 1 seedlings are expected to yield 10.8 tonnes of crude palm oil (CPO) per hectare, with oil extraction levels of 32 percent due to the exceptionally high ratio of oil in the fruit. The Eka 2 seedlings show even greater promise, with expected yields of 13.0 tonnes per hectare and oil extraction levels of 36 percent. In addition, Eka 1 and Eka 2's expected time to harvest is 24 months, compared to the current industry average of 30 months, according to a statement.