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The Oil Palm (Elaeis Guineensis)

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The Oil Palm (Elaeis Guineensis) PALM S Rival & Levang: Oil Palm Vol. 59(1) 2015 ALAIN RIVAL The Oil Palm Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche (Elaeis Agronomique pour le Développement guineensis ): Jakarta, Indonesia [email protected] Research AND Challenges PATRICE LEVANG Institut de Recherche pour Beyond le Développement Yaoundé, Cameroon Controversies [email protected] Scientists certainly have a part to play in the debate over oil palm ( Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) cultivation, which has captured and polarized public opinion, kindled and undoubtedly shaped by the media. How can this palm be viewed as a “miracle plant” by both the agro-food industry in the North and farmers in the tropical zone, but a serious ecological threat by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) campaigning for the environment or the rights of indigenous peoples? The time has come to move on from this biased and often irrational debate, which is rooted in topical issues of contemporary society in the North, such as junk food, biodiversity, energy policy and ethical consumption. One of the reasons the public has developed as nuclear energy, genetically modified crops such fixed ideas is that there has been a lack or shale gas) that is causing controversy but an of accurate information on the sector and its entire agrom-food sector that has come to actors and a clear-headed analysis of what is symbolize the conflict between the at stake. We point out that the production and conservation of natural spaces and de- processing of palm oil are part of a complex velopment. Consumers, elected representatives globalized agrom-industrial sector shared by and scientists are finally forced to take sides for multiple actors and stakeholders with often or against palm oil, with no room for ifs and conflicting interests. For the first time ever, it buts, and very few of them are willing to is not a major technological innovation (such switch positions. PALMS 59(1): 33 –49 33 PALM S Rival & Levang: Oil Palm Vol. 59(1) 2015 Distributors, processors, NGOs and journalists have often deliberately overstated the case and resorted to short cuts (oil palm means deforestation) or superficial information (good/bad fats) to make their point. This type of debate relies on clear-cut and definitive opinions, whereas researchers naturally tend to query, test out and weigh up each argument. They have nuanced and complex messages to convey (Rival & Levang 2014) that are incompatible with the format imposed by the media. The present article is aimed at clarifying some issues and developments and at highlighting challenges for researchers in several multidisciplinary fields embracing agronomy, forestry, breeding, ecology or social and human sciences. Both the public and the oil palm sector are waiting for immediate, applicable, robust and credible results, and this creates unique opportunities for multi- disciplinary and collaborative research initiatives. Two palms, two oils The oil palm, Elaeis guineensis Jacq. (Fig.1) 1. The African oil palm, Elaeis guineensis . follows a strictly tropical distribution, and its fruit pulp provides palm oil, which is half main enemies are cold (it stops growing at saturated fatty acids and half unsaturated fatty 15°C) and drought (Jacquemard 2012). Two acids, made up of 44% palmitic acid (saturated species of Elaeis are exploited for their oils: E. fatty acid), 5% stearic acid (saturated fatty guineensis of African origin (Gulf of Guinea) acid), 39% oleic acid (monounsaturated) and and E. oleifera (Kunth) Cortés of American 10% linoleic acid (polyunsaturated). Negligible origin (Amazon Basin). These two species quantities of myristic and lauric acid are also produce oil of very different chemical found (remaining 2%). composition, the oil extracted from E. oleifera being richer in unsaturated fatty acids. It is Oil palm seeds provide palm kernel oil with a possible to hybridize the two species; plant chemical composition similar to coconut oil. breeders are interested in this prospect because A significant proportion of kernel oil (82%) is E. oleifera has morpho-agronomic features that made up of saturated fatty acids, namely 48% could serve to improve the African palm, lauric acid, 16% myristic acid and 8% palmitic which is the main species cultivated today. acid. Nearly 18% of kernel oil is unsaturated, Indeed, the Amazon palm has a slower growth with 15% made up of oleic acid (mono- rate that allows for a longer period of unsaturated) and 3% linoleic acid (poly- cultivation because bunches hanging above unsaturated). This oil accounts for about 10% 15 m on older palms become difficult to of oil palm yield. It is therefore more than just harvest (Fig 2.). Elaeis oleifera also demonstrates a by-product in terms of the industry’s balance resistance to diseases such as bud rot, which sheet. It has the same uses as coconut oil with has a dramatic impact in Latin America. In which it is in direct competition. The this region, planters have no alternative but to numerous uses for palm kernel oil include plant palms from hybrid origin. Another asset cooking oil, when mixed with other vegetable of the hybrid is the quality of its oil, which is oils, margarine, soaps, cosmetics and oleo- lower in saturated fatty acids than the African chemicals. palm oil. Record-breaking oil yields One fruit, two oils The oil palm shows quite exceptional oil yields Within the plant kingdom, the oil palm has a of 3.8 tons per hectare (t/ha) as a global unique feature: its fruit contains two oils of average, nearly 6 t/ha in the best plantations strikingly different composition (Fig. 3). The in Southeast Asia and more than 10 t/ha in the 34 PALM S Rival & Levang: Oil Palm Vol. 59(1) 2015 2. Harvesting of oil palm fruits in North Sumatra, Indonesia. Old stands providing low oil yields and being more difficult to exploit are replaced by new plantations with improved cultivars with slower growth, better disease tolerance and higher oil yield. 35 PALM S Rival & Levang: Oil Palm Vol. 59(1) 2015 3. The oil palm fruit. highest yielding genetic trials currently Although it has been genetically improved underway in research institutes. Such yields since the 1940s (Cochard et al. 2005), oil palm place the oil palm at the head of industrial oil remains a very hardy plant and is able to adapt crops (Fig. 3). to a very wide range of cultivation systems. These systems of cultivation range from family The proportion of palm oil in worldwide plots of a few hectares (or even less) to agrom- production of vegetable oils has continued to industrial estates covering several tens of grow over recent decades to reach the number thousands of hectares. Oil palm is a very one spot, ahead of soybean. Today, it accounts resilient crop adapted to various agronomic for over a third of the vegetable oil produced contexts: oil yields vary according to the worldwide (Fig. 5). density of plantation and systems for Although it occupies only 7% of agricultural irrigation, fertilization and intercropping. The land devoted to oil-producing plants (Caliman stem (trunk) of the palm tree plays a vital part 2011), oil palm provides 39% of world’s in this flexibility, enabling it to accumulate production of vegetable oil on a much lower significant organic (carbohydrate) and mineral proportion of this land than that devoted to reserves (Legros et al. 2009). Thanks to such soybean (61%), rapeseed (18%) and sunflower physiological plasticity, oil palms can survive (14%). Palm oil also has the lowest production an extended dry season, several years without costs of all vegetable oils, 20% lower than fertilizer and competition from other oil palms soybean. or crops planted in proximity, such as maize, cassava or legumes. Almost 40% of the palm An exploited agronomic flexibility oil produced today comes from small farms. Nearly 18 million hectares of land in tropical Globally, around 3 million smallholders are areas have been planted with oil palm. involved in the sector. In Indonesia alone it is 4. Comparative oil yields between major oil crops. 36 PALM S Rival & Levang: Oil Palm Vol. 59(1) 2015 5. Share of palm oil in the global market (statistics from 2013). estimated that 25 million people are now 2. oleochemicals (19% of usage): cosmetics, making a living – directly or indirectly – from soap production, lubricants and greases, oil palm cultivation (WWF 2011). candles, pharmaceutical products, leather, surfactants, agrochemicals, paint and lacquer, A versatile product electronics, etc. The fatty acid composition of palm oil gives it 3. biodiesel (1% of usage). specific physiochemical properties that explain its successful adoption by processing com- The fragile coexistence with tropical forests panies in the North. In these countries its The biological requirements of oil palm limit consistency at room temperature gives it a its distribution to the wet tropics, where natural “melt in the mouth” characteristic, plantations must coexist with some of the which means it can be used as a substitute for planet’s last biodiversity hotspots, namely the butter in many agri-food processing industries Congo Basin, the Amazon and Borneo (Fig. 6). (patisserie, confectionery, savory snacks, ready- Other major oil crops also have to coexist with made dishes and frozen food). These technical fragile environments. Indeed, the cultivation and organoleptic properties can be obtained of soybean (75% genetically modified), for from oils extracted from temperate oil crops example, has to overcome significant (rapeseed, soybean or sunflower), but such oils environmental constraints, particularly in have to be artificially hydrogenated, which Brazil where the area under cultivation has risks producing trans fatty acids (trans fats), increased from 1.7 million to 21.7 million which are legally banned or at least recognized hectares within 40 years. as harmful. Palm oil responds well to the challenge to find alternative forms of fat with Oil palm and deforestation little or no trans fatty acids (FFAS 2012), which The relationship between palm plantations explains its success in the food industry.
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