Dear all,

Part II:

Introduction: Origin of  organic compound that sustain life:

Life on earth started by a process called photosynthesis

Photosynthesis is a process used by plants and other organisms to convert light energy, normally from the Sun, into chemical energy that can be later released to fuel the organisms' activities. This chemical energy is stored in carbohydrate molecules, such as sugars, which are synthesized from carbon dioxide and water – In most cases, oxygen is also released as a waste product. Plants, algae, and cyanobacteria perform photosynthesis; such organisms are called photoautotrophs. Photosynthesis maintains atmospheric oxygen levels and supplies all of the organic compounds and most of the energy (fuel) necessary for life on Earth.

When seed is planted in the soil and with water the seed germinate, an embryo grows out of the seed into small plant. With root and leaf now form, the plant can now absorbed water and nutrient (N, P and K) from the soil and with sunlight photosynthesis start where carbohydrate molecules, such as sugars formed. This carbohydrate is the building block for the living cell to further grow into root, stem, leaf, flower, fruit, seed and etc. Note: Plants organic compounds become food for herbivores which itself become food for carnivores and both become food for omnivores (human)

Many agriculture plants like palm tree, coconut tree and seasonal crops sunflower, groundnut, soya bean, rapeseed and etc produce in the fruit or seed a substance we called vegetable oil which we human had been using it for cooking , food preparation and as ingredient in our foods.

Oil palm tree

The Oil Palm Tree (Elaeis guineensis jacq) originated from the tropical rainforest region of West Africa and was introduced to Southeast Asia by the British and the Dutch. It is a single stemmed plant bearing a number of large finely divided multiple leaflets (fronds). Its bears both male (pollen) and female (flower) on the same tree and when pollinated produces bunches of reddish individual fruitlet (fresh fruit bunch: FFB). The FFB weigh between 10 and 25 kilograms with 1000 to 2000 fruitlets per bunch. Each fruitlet is almost spherical or elongated in shape. Generally, the fruitlet is dark purple, almost black and the colour turns to orange red when ripe. Each fruitlet consists of a hard kernel (seed) enclosed in a shell (endocarp) which is surrounded by a fleshy mesocarp. The Oil palm fruit produce two types of oil, crude palm oil from mesocarp and palm kernel oil from kernel seed. Each fresh fruit bunch will give crude palm oil yield of 21- 29% and palm kernel oil yield of 2-3% bunch weight

Oil palm tree will start bearing fruits after 3 to 4 years of field planting (Planting density about 140 trees per hectare, each tree evenly space 9 meter apart) and will continue to be productive for the next 20 to 25 years with the prime years at around 7 to 20 years of ages. Each tree can produce about 12 to 20 FFB each year. As tropical rainforest tree species oil palm tree is cultivated as a perennial plantation oil crop in tropical climate within 20 degree of the equatorial which have a high and equally distributed rainfall of minimum 1,000 mm per year.

Per hectare basic oil palm cultivation will yield about 4 to 6 MT crude palm oil and 0.4 to 0.5 MT of palm kernel oil per year. Every 10 hectare 1 worker is required.  Indonesia and Malaysia account for about 85- 90% of world palm oil production.

Vegetable oil yields http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_yield.html#yield

http://www.mpoc.org.my/Recent_Studies_Further_Confirm_that_Oil_Palm_Cultivation_is_not_the_Main_Cause_of_Deforestation_.aspx

Table 2: Land area planted with major oil crops in the world between 2010 and 2015

High yield palm oil tree cultivation

Note: Oil palm tree cultivation in Indonesia had brought development into rural area by:

1. Direct employment opportunities (Every 10 hectare 1 direct employment) which in turn support direct employee whole family livelihood.
2. Plantation development brought in much needed infrastructure and amenities facilities (Road, banking system, mini-market, medical, school and etc)
3. Plantation companies provide support, finance and management know how for private own small holders.
4. Plantation activities generating others economic activities for local communities and allow local small business to flourish.
5. Plantation water reserve area and fire fighting team readily available water resource to fight any bush/forest fire during severe drought situation.
6. Plantation companies's conservation and rehabilitation program on HCV areas to restore and preserve the beauty of flora and fauna at its pristine natural environment.
7. Plantation companies (RSPO) commitment for sustainable and responsible planting and to protect the forest reserve area and animal sanctuary.
8. Plantation companies bringing development/employment/economic activities to empower rural local communities so that less people migrate to big town for employment thus lesser the infrastructure stress on big towns.

So my questions what benefit have cultivation of other seasonal oil crops had brought to the local communities besides benefitting the rich owner, bank, fertilizer, weed killer and seed supplier? How much of these harmful chemicals will eventually going into river system? And per hectare basic, base on mass balance of carbon atom your cultivation activities had absorbed how much of C02 from the atmosphere compare to oil palm tree cultivation.

Thank you