Palm oil plantation in Malaysia

Palm oil plantation in Malaysia

Introduction of oil palm plant and palm oil

Many people understand that oil palm produces the common vegetable oil used in our daily products but few ask about where the oil is derived from. Palm oil ( dendê oil, from Portuguese) is an edible vegetable oil derived from the mesocarp of the fruits bear by the oil palm tree. Yes oil palm and palm oil is a different thing, oil palm is the plant itself and palm oil is the vegetable oil it produces. Oil palm tree took around 30 months to grow from a baby plant to adult and starts to bear fruits afterwards, the lifespan of an oil palm tree is estimated to be able to live for 20 to 30 years and remain productive.  The oil palm tree are used in commercial agriculture in the production of palm oil since palm oil contains more saturated fats than oils made from canola, corn, linseed, soybeans, safflower, and sunflowers, it can withstand extreme deep-frying heat and resists oxidation. It also contains no trans-fat. Many country in the world begins to largely commercialize oil palm plantation mainly in Malaysia and Indonesia because of the advantage of the palm oil it produces.

History of palm oil plantation in Malaysia.

Oil palm species Elaeis guineensis was first introduced into Malaysia as an ornamental plant in the 1870s. Since 1960s, Malaysia had started to widely commercialize the palm oil plantation and rapid increase of area used for palm oil plantation to replace rubber plantation as the market price for rubber is declining further. In 1985, the total area planted for palm oil is 1.5 million hectares which then increased to 4.85 million hectares of palm oil plantation in 2007. As of 2011, the total planted area increased to 4.971 million hectares. Malaysia was known to be the 2^nd largest palm oil producer in the world after Indonesia. Currently Malaysia uses oil palm tree of tenera hybrid which gives better yield yearly as compare to the previous species. The advantage of using Tenera hybrid was the fruits of oil palm can be fully utilize with reduce wastage thus is more environmentally friendly

Malaysia government had plan to make palm oil plantation the country main source of income and to replace the rubber plantation production. In the 1960s, a  land settlement scheme plan is introduced for planting oil palm in smallholder( small farmland for own uses) to eradicate the poverty for smallholder farmers. Palm oil fetch a high price in the market and are encourage by the government to help increase in the land used for palm oil plantation.  Nowadays Malaysia palm oil plantation are largely based on estate area and smallholder

The palm fruit is about the size of a small plum and borne in large bunches. The cross-sectional area of the fruits of oil palm showing the mesocarp and the kernel. Mesocarp produces the palm oil while the kernel is of no value. However with nowadays technology, the kernel is utilize and process into livestock feeds so that there is no wastage produced.