Ganoderma boninense (basal stem rot of oil palm).

Abstract

Abstract Darmono (1998) described disease incidence of 51% in some areas of Sumatra, Indonesia. More recent estimation of disease is provided for Malaysia and Sumatra in Paterson (2019, a, b). Basal stem rot (BSR) infection of oil palms in Thailand remains low (Likhitekaraj and Tummakate, 2000): Pornsuriya et al. (2013) indicated that levels were at 1.53%, although they state that the disease was experienced widely in southern plantations. The BSR levels may be influenced by being contiguous with peninsular Malaysia where the disease levels are high (Paterson, 2019b). A scenario of 10% infection currently is a reasonable scenario for Thailand. Papua New Guinea has an important palm oil industry (Corley and Tinker, 2015). The level of BSR in Papua New Guinea is not as high as in some other areas of South-East Asia although 50% has been recorded (Pilotti, 2005; Pilotti et al., 2018). An average of 25% infection is a plausible scenario for this country as the initial level is lower than that used for Malaysia and Sumatra, Indonesia. The Philippines has an oil palm industry at a lower level than that of Thailand (Corley and Tinker, 2015). BSR will be low as the plantations have not been established recently (Woods, 2015) and distances between plantations will be high. Equally, there are no reports of infection by BSR in the literature. Hence a low level of BSR can be expected. BSR of oil palms has been recorded widely throughout the tropics and is considered as a serious disease in Africa and South America.