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THE OCCURANCE OF OIL PALM WEEVIL, Elaeidobius kamerunicus (ORDER:
COLEOPTERA) AND THE PRODUCTIVITY OF OIL PALM, Elaeis guineensis
(FAMILY: ARECACEAE)
Siti Khadijah Bt Abdul Khalid
(28244)
Bachelor of Science with Honours
Animal Resource Science and Management
2013
THE OCCURANCE OF OIL PALM WEEVIL, Elaeidobius kamerunicus (Order:
Coleoptera) AND THE PRODUCTIVITY OF OIL PALM, Elaeis guineensis (Family:
Arecaceae)
A project is submitted to partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of
Bachelor of Science with Honours
(Animal Resource Science and Management)
Department of Zoology
Faculty of Resource Science and Technology
UNIVERSITI MALAYSIA SARAWAK
2013
Declaration
I hereby declare that the thesis is based on my original work except for citation which has
been duly acknowledgement. I also declare that it has not been previously or concurrently
submitted for any other degree qualification at UNIMAS or any others institution or
university of higher learning.
___________________________
Siti Khadijah Bt Abdul Khalid
Animal Resources Sciences and Management Program
Department of Zoology
Faculty of Resources Sciences and Technology
Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
I
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
First and foremost, praise to Allah S.W.T for giving me inner strength to continue
pursuing my research work despite the hardship faced. Secondly, I would like to
express my gratitude towards my supervisor, Dr. Chong Yee Ling for all the
guidance, advices and support throughout the process of completing this thesis. My
appreciation also to Miss Siti Nurlydia bt Sazali@Piksin and Professor Sulaiman B
Hanapi for sharing their valuable information and thoughts.
Besides that, I also liked to thank the Felcra Berhad for their permission to conduct
my field work in Bangka Semong Oil Palm Plantation. My gratitude also addressed
to all workers in Bangka Semong Oil Palm Plantation for proving guidance, facilities
and materials during the sampling.
Moreover, my gratitude is also express to my colleagues, Nor Azlini Bt Mat Isahak
Zaki and Nur Aini Bt Mohd Nasri during sampling at the field and encouragement as
well as companies. In additional, I would like to thank to all my friends form
Department of Zoology, Department of Plant and my housemate for all the support
and guidance during my ups and downs.
Above and beyond, I would like to give special thanks to the angel of my heart,
Shazana Zawani, Shahrul Ikhwan, Mohd Effandy, Mohammad Najib and Khairul
Liza for all the encouragement and support given.
II
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTERS CONTENTS PAGES
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I
TABLE OF CONTENTS II
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS IV
LIST OF TABLES V
LIST OF FIGURES VI
LIST OF APPENDICES VIII
ABSTARCT
1
1.0 INTRODUCTION 2
1.1 Background of study
2
2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW 5
2.1 Pollination 5
2.1.1 Insect pollination of oil palm 5
2.2 The potential of E. kamerunicus as
pollinators in Malaysia
6
2.3 Oil palm weevil, E. kamerunicus 7
2.4 The African oil palm, Elaeis guineensis
Jacq.
9
2.4.1 Descriptions of Elaeis guineensis 10
2.4.2 Inflorescences 12
2.4.3 Fruiting 13
2.5 The productivity of oil palm 14
2.6 Previous studies on pollinator and oil palm
production.
17
3.0 MATERIALS AND METHODS 18
3.1 Study site 18
III
3.2 Field method and sample collection 19
3.3 Data analysis 24
4.0
RESULTS
4.1 The occurrences of male flowers
inflorescence during anthesis and oil palm
weevil, E. kamerunicus in Bangka Semong
Oil Palm Plantation.
4.2 The harvest of the fresh fruit bunch (FFB) in
Bangka Semong Oil Palm Plantation.
4.3 The correlation between the prevalence of
E.kamerunicus and the yield of oil palm in
Bangka Semong oil palm plantation.
25
25
27
29
5.0 DISCUSSION
5.1 The occurrences of the oil palm weevil,
E.kamerunicus
5.2 Numbers of spikelet per bunch of male
flower inflorescences with anthesis
5.3 The productivity of oil palm in Bangka
Semong Oil Palm Plantation.
32
32
34
35
6.0 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 39
REFERENCES 40
APPENDICES 45
IV
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
FFB Fresh Fruit Bunch
CPO Crude Palm Oil
CPKO Crude Palm Kernel Oil
FELCRA Federal Land Consolidation and
Rehabilitation Authority
One –way ANOVA One- way analysis of variance
SPSS Statistical Package for the
Social Sciences
HQ Head quarters
M Meter
Cm Centimeter
Mm Millimeter
% Percentage
Kg Kilogram
G Gram
V
LIST OF TABLES
Table Pages
Table 4.1 Oil palm weevil, E. kamerunicus on the male
flowers during anthesis.
27
Table 4.2 The harvest of fresh fruit bunch (FFB) at different
blocks in Bangka Semong Oil Palm Plantation
29
VI
LIST OF FIGURE
Figure Pages
Figure 2.1 Lateral view of E. kamerunicus 8
Figure 2.2 African Oil Palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) at Bangka
Semong Oil Palm Plantation.
10
Figure 2.3 The different types of fruit varieties (a) Dura, (b)
Tenera and (c) Pisifera.
12
Figure 2.4 Male and female inflorescences at stages of
development (a) The male inflorescences before
anthesis, (b) the male inflorescences during anthesis,
and (c) the female flowers during anthesis.
13
Figure 2.5 Oil palm fruits (a) The cross section of oil palm fruit,
(b) the bunch of fruit that is ready to be harvested.
14
Figure 3.1 Study site at Bangka Semong Oil Palm Plantation in
Kota Samarahan, Sarawak
18
Figure 3.2 Blocks (A-J) division at Bangka Semong Oil Palm
Plantation. HQ indicates the main office for the
plantation area.
19
Figure 3.3 Sampling plot at each block. 20
Figure 3.4 Measuring the diameter of the FFB. 21
Figure 3.5 Collecting and calculating the weevil on male flowers 21
Figure 3.6 Materials used to calculate the weevil (a) 70% of
ethanol for preservation, (b) filter paper, (c)
22
VII
magnification lens and (d) plastic bottles.
Figure 3.7 The male (a) and female (b) weevil under the
microscope
22
Figure 3.8 The colony of the weevil in spikelet on male flower (a)
early anthesis period and (b) late anthesis period
23
Figure 4.1 Scattered plots show (a) The correlation between
numbers of spikelet and the numbers of weevil, (b) The
correlation between the numbers of FFB per tree and
the numbers of weevil, (c) The correlation between
average diameter of FFB and the numbers of weevil.
30
VIII
LIST OF APPENDICES
Appendix Pages
Appendix A
Appendix 1 Data collection for Plot G1 from Bangka Semong oil
palm plantation on 23 February 2013, 2.05 pm. The
weather of condition is sunny day.
45
Appendix 2 Data collection for Plot G2 from Bangka Semong oil
palm plantation on 24 February 2013, 12.35 pm. The
weather of condition is raining.
47
Appendix 3 Data collection for Plot G3 from Bangka Semong oil
palm plantation on 23 February 2013, 10.20 am. The
weather of condition is sunny day.
49
Appendix 4 Data collection for Plot A1 from Bangka Semong oil
palm plantation on 2 March 2013, 9.30 am. The
weather of condition is sunny day.
51
Appendix 5 Data collection for Plot A2 from Bangka Semong oil
palm plantation on 2 March 2013, 1.35 pm. The
weather of condition is sunny day.
53
Appendix 6 Data collection for Plot A3 from Bangka Semong oil
palm plantation on 3 March 2013, 9.50 am. The
weather of condition is cloudy
55
Appendix 7 Data collection for Plot F1 from Bangka Semong oil
palm plantation on 3 March 2013, 2.20 pm. The
57
IX
weather of condition is cloudy.
Appendix 8 Data collection for Plot F2 from Bangka Semong oil
palm plantation on 9 March 2013, 9.50 am. The
weather of condition is cloudy.
59
Appendix 9
Data collection for Plot F3 from Bangka Semong oil
palm plantation on 9 March 2013, 2.30 pm. The
weather of condition is sunny day.
62
Appendix 10 Data collection for Plot D1 from Bangka Semong oil
palm plantation on 10
March 2013, 9.25 am. The weather of condition is
sunny day.
65
Appendix 11 Data collection for Plot D2 from Bangka Semong oil
palm plantation on 10 March 2013, 12.35 pm. The
weather of condition is sunny day.
68
Appendix 12 Data collection for Plot D3 from Bangka Semong oil
palm plantation on 16 March 2013, 2.05 pm. The
weather of condition is raining.
71
Appendix B
Appendix 13 Normality Test for (a) total numbers of weevil and
(b) total numbers of spikelet
74
Appendix 14 Mann-Whitney U Test for 95.5% Confident Interval
for (a) Numbers of weevil and (b) 95.5% Confident
Interval for Numbers of spikelet per bunch.
75
Appendix 15 One-way ANOVA and Tukey Method for Numbers 76
X
of FFB
Appendix 16 One-way ANOVA and Tukey Method for Average
diameter of FFB
78
Appendix 17 Spearman Correlation analysis for numbers of
spikelet against the numbers of pollinator
80
Appendix 18 Spearman Correlation analysis for average numbers
of fresh fruit bunch against the numbers of pollinator
80
Appendix 19 Spearman Correlation analysis for numbers of fresh
fruit bunch against the numbers of pollinator
80
Appendix 20 Print screen of correlation test using the (a) Minitab
16 and (b) SPSS 17.0
81
Appendix C
Appendix 21 The data collection and recorded based on the
condition in the Bangka Semong oil palm plantation;
(a) the dorsal view of FFB that have been damages by
pest, (b) the dorsal view of ripe FFB that have in oil
palm plantation, (c) the dorsal view of female
inflorescence before anthesis, (d) the dorsal view of
the female inflorescences at anthesis stage of
development, (e) the lateral view of the male
inflorencences at before anthesis stage of
developmen, (f) the lateral view of the male
inflorescences during anthesis stage of development,
82
XI
(g) the view of the no production tree of fruits and
male inflorescences,(h) the view of the production
tree contains FFB, (i)The view of the tree that are
affected by pest and disease, (j) The condition of the
tree cause by the pest and disease,(k) another
condition of the tree also cause by the pest and
disease, (l) the lateral view of the incomplete
pollination occur in several tree, and (m) the view of
the potted seedling in plantation.
1
The Occurrence of Oil Palm Weevil, Elaeidobius kamerunicus (Order:
Coleoptera) and The Productivity of Oil Palm, Elaeis guineensis (Family:
Arecaceae)
Siti Khadijah Bt Abdul Khalid
Animal Resource and Management Programme
Faculty of Science and Technology
Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
ABSTRACT
Malaysia has the most developed oil palm industry in the world and this affects the overall agriculture
development of the country. The oil palm tree in Malaysia is Elaeis guineensis (African oil palm) and
the main pollinating agent is Elaeidobius kamerunicus (oil palm weevil). This study was conducted in
Bangka Semong oil palm plantation, Kota Samarahan, Sarawak to verify the occurrence of E.
kamerunicus in response to the productivity of oil palm. The result from this study showed that there
is a low occurrence of male flower inflorescences that anthesis (<1%) from 660 oil palm trees
sampled. The occurrence of oil palm weevil is higher in block F compared to A (Mann-Whitney U
test). The numbers of fresh fruit bunches sampled were significant different comparing four different
blocks (one-way ANOVA). The numbers of weevil presence is positively correlated with the numbers
of spikelet based on Spearman Rank Correlation test. However, there are no linear relationships
between the presence of weevils and the number of fresh fruit bunches or the average diameter of fruit
bunches. The findings of this study could provide the useful information on the relationship between
the occurrence of oil palm weevil and productivity. In addition, this study can serve as reference for
future studies and knowledge on the biology of these insects which is vital for better management of
oil palm yields.
Keywords: Elaeidobius kamerunicus, Elaeis guineensis, pollinator agents, occurrence of weevil,
productivity of oil palm
ABSTRAK
Malaysia mempunyai industri kelapa sawit paling maju di dunia dan ini memberi kesan kepada
pembangunan pertanian secara keseluruhan di negara ini. Pokok kelapa sawit di Malaysia adalah
Elaeis guineensis (kelapa sawit Afrika) dan ejen utama pendebungaan adalah Elaeidobius
kamerunicus (kumbang kelapa sawit). Kajian ini telah dijalankan di ladang kelapa sawit Bangka
Semong, Kota Samarahan, Sarawak untuk mengesahkan jumlah E. kamerunicus dan produktiviti
kelapa sawit. Hasil kajian menunjukkan pendebungaan bunga jantan adalah rendah (<1%) dari 660
batang pokok kelapa sawit. Jumlah kumbang kelapa sawit didapati tinggi di blok F berbanding blok A
(Mann-Whitney U test). Bilangan tandan buah segar berbeza signifikan berbanding empat blok yang
lain (One-Way ANOVA). Bilangan kumbang yang hadir berkorelasi positif dengan bilangan spikelet
berdasarkan kepada Spearman Rank Correlation test. Walaubagaimanapun, tiada hubungan selari
antara kehadiran kumbang dan bilangan tandan buah segar atau purata diameter tandan buah. Hasil
kajian ini boleh memberikan maklumat yang berguna mengenai hubungan antara kumbang kelapa
sawit dan produktiviti. Selain itu, penyelidikan ini boleh dijadikan sebagai rujukan untuk kajian masa
depan dan memberi pengetahuan mengenai biologi serangga yang penting untuk pengurusan hasil
kelapa sawit yang lebih baik.
Kata kunci: Elaeidobius kamerunicus, Elaeis guineensis, agen pendebungaan, jumlah kumbang,
penghasilan kelapa sawit
2
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of Study
Over the past 30 years, the area for the plantation of oil palm (Elaeis guineensis
Jacq.) has increased more than 150% worldwide. Most of these areas are located in
Southeast Asia, with the outstanding production increases in Malaysia and Indonesia
(Fairhurst & Mutent, 1999). Nowadays, the oil palm industry has become the major
source of income that contributes to the politics and socio-economic stabilization in
Malaysia. This has been proven during the World Economy Crash between 1997 and
1998, when the oil palm industry saved Malaysia from being dependent on other
countries for survival (MPOIP, 2008). According to Corley & Tinker (2003),
Malaysia is one of the countries that have the oldest oil palm industry in the world
and the development is rapidly moves.
Interaction between the pollinator and host plant can have an important influence on
the dynamics of the production of fruit (Mitchell et al., 2009; Adaigbe et al., 2011).
The oil palm, Elaeis guineensis Jacq., is considered as entomophilous crop which
belonged to the family Arecaceae (also known as Palmae). According to Syed
(1981), there are ten species of insects that were identified to benefit the oil palm
plantation in West Africa and these species are Elaeidobius kamerunicus,
Elaeidobius singularis, Elaeidobius subvittatus, Mystrops coastaricensis, Thrips
hawaiilensis and some bee species.
3
As an erect monoecious plant, oil palm produces separate male and female flowers
on the same plant and they are cross-pollinated (Corley & Tinker, 2003; Verheye,
2010). According to Syed (1979), E. kamerunicus, from the Order of Coleoptera
(beetles), is the main pollinating weevil of the oil palm. It is the only live beetle in oil
palm flowers and will flies from male flowers to female flowers (Corley & Tinker,
2003). In order to improve the pollination efficiency of oil palm, E. kamerunicus was
the first imported beetles species from Cameroon, West Africa to the oil palm
plantation in Malaysia (Mohd Basri et al., 1983).
Before the existence of this weevil, Lespesme (1946), Alibert (1945) and Beirnaert
(1935) believed that insect is not essential in pollination of oil palm and the oil palm
was mainly pollinated by wind. Pollination failures may relate with a low proportion
of male inflorescences during the pollination (Corley & Tinker, 2003). In 1948,
Henry suggested that insects may have played some part during the pollination,
although they are not required for pollination (Corley & Tinker, 2003). According to
Siregar (2006), weevils are host-specific and their adaptation depended on the
seasons, whether it is summer or rain. These weevils were also capable on
transferring pollens in the same quantities in young or old crop. On the other hand,
Syed (1979) found that the oil palm was mainly pollinated by the insects and the
wind played only some part in pollination based on his study in Malaysia and
Cameroon.
The production of the fruit bunch of oil palm and the value of the fruit set are
affected by the several factors. According to the Harun & Noor (2002), the changes
in the population of the E. kamerunicus was affected by the production and fruit set
4
of the fruit bunch. When the population of the weevils increased, the production of
the fruit increased and vice versa. Based on Hutauruk & Syukur (1985) and
Ponnamma (1999), when the population densities of E. kamerunicus increased in
around 20,000 per hectare, it increased the value of the fruit set from 36.9 % to 78.3
% and the good fruit set value was above 75%. According to Donough et al. (1996),
the weevil population was correlated with fruit set which was in turn correlated with
the male inflorescences numbers. Apart from pollinator, there are others factors that
contribute to the production of fruits such as climate change, soil, fertilizer, and
harvesting management (Corley & Tinker, 2003; Sunarko, 2007). According to
Corley & Tinker (2003), natality, mortality and migration of the weevils can cause
fluctuation on the population of the weevil. The introduction of the weevil as an
effective pollinator in 1970s, this successfully ended the costly and inefficient hand
pollination process and resulted in the increase in yields in many oil palms producing
regions (Fairhurst & Mutent, 1999).
This study was done with the objective to investigate the occurrence of oil palm
weevil, E. kamerunicus and correlation with the productivity of oil palm, E.
guineensis. There have been many studies done on the numbers of spikelet, fruit
weight and others parameter such as temperature and soil condition to determine the
productivity of oil palm. However, no study has been done to investigate the
relationship between the pollinator and the fruit productivity based on the diameter
and the numbers of Fresh Fruit Bunch (FFB).
5
CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Pollination
The process of transferring pollen from the anther of one flower to the stigma of
another or the same flower is called pollination (Kevan, 1999). According to
Sparnaaij (1969), pollination of oil palm can occur through weevils or wind.
Pollination is the first step in the reproductive process of plants after production of
the sexual organs. Pollination occurs by wind, water and gravity is known as abiotic
pollination while pollination that is facilitated by the animals is known as biotic
pollination (Kevan, 1999). According to Risza (2006), the pollination of the oil palm
can also be done through human assistance. The animals or the flowers visitors
which feed on flowers also known as anthophiles, which mean they seek the pollen,
nectar, oil and floral tissue for food (Kevan, 1999). Some specialized flowers provide
profit (i.e. pollen) for their specialized pollinators and become host to certain species
of insect (Bernhardt & Thien, 1987).
2.1.1 Insect pollination of oil palm
Insects are the most important pollinators in plant, especially the bee species. Others
groups of insects (e.g. moths and beetles) also help in plant pollination (Chiu, 1984;
Kevan, 1999). Animals that can pollinate the plants are called pollinators. In the
good old days, the pollinator of oil palm in Malaysia was Thrips hawaiiensis,
6
although it was present, it had apparently not adapted to the oil palm and does not
fully contributed to pollination because they were absent from young plantings.
Other than that, some pollen was dispersed by micromoth, Pyroderces sp (Tan &
Basri Wahid, 1985). Micromoth, Pyroderces sp and T. hawaiiensis is the pollinating
agents for oil palm before the introduction of E. kamerunicus into West Malaysia
(Syed, 1979, 1981; Sipayung & Soedharto, 1982). Even though T. hawaiiensis is the
pollinator, it was not efficient in pollinating because it has minimum pollination
activity under the cloudy and raining day (Corley & Tinker, 2003). In Sabah, hand
pollination of young palms was necessary because there is no T. hawaiiensis and
only a few other insects were found in the oil palm (Chiu, 1984).
2.2 The potential of E. kamerunicus as pollinator in Malaysia.
In Cameroon, Syed (1982) initiated the study of life cycle and host specificity of
three species of Elaeidobius which has potential to be introduced into Malaysia. The
three species were Elaeidobius kamerunicus, Elaeidobius subvittatus and
Elaeidobius plagiatus. He determined whether the Elaeidobius spp. could be used to
pollinate the oil palm and to ensure that the weevil do not damage the oil palm or
other plants (Syed, 1982). He found out that the entire weevils did not oviposit on the
others flowers but only to oil palm. During the receptivity, the weevil carried the
pollens and visited the female inflorescences and did not injure the female flowers or
the fruits. Syed (1982) concluded that three weevils are safe to be introduced to
Malaysia and E. kamerunicus is the most suitable weevil to pollinate the oil palm
because of its ability to pollinate in wet and dry seasons and carried more pollen
compare to the other species.
7
The person that responsible in introducing the pollinating weevil, E. kamerunicus
into Malaysia is Dr. R.A. Syed in 1979 at Cameroon (Chiu, 1984). During that time,
he found a dozen species of insects visited both the male and female flowers during
anthesis of the oil palm. The species that affect the pollination process is E.
kamerunicus (Corley & Tinker, 2003). The first batch of E. kamerunicus was
imported into Malaysia in July 1980 by Unilever, which is the multinational
company with oil palm plantation in Cameroon and Malaysia (Mohd Basri et al.,
1983). During the quarantine, Malaysian Department of Agriculture carried out host
specificity test on the weevil and the result was comparable to study by Syed (1982).
After the quarantine period, this weevil was released to the Pamol and Mamol
Estates on February 1981 near Kluang, Johore and after a month later at Pamol
Estate in Sabah (Syed, 1982). The weevil had been introduced and has been spread to
all oil palm estate in Malaysia by April 1982 (Mohd Basri et al., 1983).
2.3 The oil palm weevil, E. Kamerunicus
Scientific classification of oil palm weevil (Figure 2.1):
Kingdom : Animalia
Phylum : Arthropoda
Class : Insecta
Order : Coleoptera
Family : Curculionidae
Genus : Elaeidobius
Species : Elaeidobius kamerunicus
8
Figure 2.1 Lateral view of E. kamerunicus (Source: http://www.padil.gov.au)
The morphological characters of the E.kamerunicus include a dark brown body in
which the body is divided into three parts: head, thorax and abdomen. They have a
pair of wings in the thorax: the tick wings called ‘elytra’ and the membranous thin
wings. There are size differences between a male and female weevil in which the
male is bigger compare to female. The average size of the adult is between 1.8 to 4.0
mm (O’Brien & Woodruff, 1986). The male weevil has shorter proboscis or the
mouthpart than female. Others than that, the body appearance of the male weevils is
more hairy compare to female (Harumi, 2011). At the end of the elytra, the male
weevils have marginal setae which are not found in female (O’Brien & Woodruff,
1986; Kurniawan, 2010).
According to Syed (1982), the duration period for the weevil to develop from egg to
adult is between seven to 14 days in the field and the average of the adult longevity is
from 15 to 17 days. In another study by Tuo et al. (2011), the average of life
expectancy for the E. kamerunicus is 59.18 ± 8.53 days and for the life cycle time
was 10.27 ± 0.34 days. The life cycle of the female is around 65 days and for male is
9
46 days (Arif et al., 2009). The adult weevil is attracted to both male and female
inflorescences by the strong aniseed smell (Corley & Tinker, 2003; Susanto et al.,
2007). Although this weevil is specific to oil palm, the adult could survive on
Eugenia aqueous flowers (only for one week) and Cocoa nucifera flowers (only for
two weeks) but not oviposit. Against these all plant species, the weevil only
attracted to the flowers of E. guineensis because the flower provided the food and
become host to the weevil (Corley & Tinker, 2003). According to Adaigbe et al.
(2011), E. kamerunicus were able to differentiate host and non-host species through
the olfactory response by odour emitted from inflorescences plant. The population of
the male and female weevils in the field is 1:2.
According to Tandon et al. (2001), the time visitation of the weevil from the male
flowers to female inflorescences started around 7.00 am until 3.00 pm and the
maximum activity was observed between 11 to 12 noons. The total visitation
frequencies of E. kamerunicus on female inflorescences were 128 weevils per 30
minutes (Anggriani, 2010). This weevil also becomes less active during the raining
season or cloudy days and after the downpours (Syed, 1982). The population of the
weevils also was lower during the wet season (Syed, 1982).
2.4 The African oil palm, Elaeis guineensis Jacq.
Malaysia is one of the countries that have the oldest oil palm industry in the world
and the overall development of the country is moving rapidly as well as oil palm
plantation (Guerts, 2000). Oil palm is the usual crop of the rainy tropical lowlands.
The trees required a deep soil, light intensity, stable in high temperature and
10
continuous moisture through the year (Verheye, 2010). Dry periods of more than two
to three months do not specifically damage vegetative growth but affect the
production and quality of the fruit bunches seriously (Verheye, 2010). Oil palm yield
is not only determined by the vegetative growth and production but also by the
control of pests and diseases (Verheye, 2010).
2.4.1 Descriptions of E. guineensis Jacq.
Oil palm (E. guineensis Jacq.) is derived from three words namely Elaeis, derived
from the Greek, word, Elation means oil, guineensis originated from Guinea
language (west coast of Africa) and Jacq. came from the name of the American
Botanical, Jacquin (Figure 2.2).
Figure 2.2 African Oil Palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) at Bangka Semong Oil Palm Plantation (Photo
credit by Siti Khadijah Bt Abdul Khalid)