Abstract
Crop residue management is an important agricultural practice that has a high potential to improve soil health and optimize crop production. Compared to annual crops, relatively little is known about crop residue management effects on the yield and temporal stability of perennial crop production. This study focused on oil palm (Elaeis guineensis), an important tropical crop that had expanded rapidly over the past decades. We aimed to understand the effects of applying a major oil palm residue, the empty fruit bunch, on crop yield and temporal stability of production. We compared 15 years of crop yield performance from a field trial in Sumatra, Indonesia. The treatments included empty fruit bunch application of three application rates (30, 60, and 90 t ha−1 year−1), and a reference treatment of chemical fertilizers with no addition of empty fruit bunch. Compared to the reference treatment, the cumulative crop yield over 15 years under low, medium, and high application rates of empty fruit bunch increased by 2.4, 5.9, and 4.8%, respectively. The annual crop yield and temporal stability in production were not significantly different between treatments. Soil organic carbon was significantly higher under medium application rate of empty fruit bunch compared to that under the chemical fertilizer treatment. Soil organic carbon and relative humidity were positively associated with annual crop yield with a time lag of 2 years. This study is the first to show that both crop yield and temporal variability of oil palm production can be maintained under crop residue application, compared to chemical fertilizer treatment. Furthermore, climatic conditions had strong effects on the temporal variability of oil palm production. These findings will inform the design of optimal empty fruit bunch application schemes that enhance sustainable intensification of oil palm cultivation.
Highlights
Optimizing agricultural management practices to enhance ecosystem health and maintain high crop yield is important for the sustainable development of agriculture (Garnett et al 2013)
The annual crop yield did not significantly differ between the treatments (F3202 = 2.41, P = 0.068) (Fig. 2a). These results suggest that switching from full chemical fertilizer treatment to the use of empty fruit bunch (EFB) as an alternative nutrient source led to slightly higher cumulative yield and similar levels of annual crop yield
A previous study in a Malaysian oil palm plantation showed that EFB application at the rate of 44 t ha−1 year−1 for 10 years resulted in a higher yield than chemical fertilizer treatment, while a lower rate of 22 t ha−1 year−1 of EFB application resulted in similar yield to the chemical fertilizer treatment (Abu Bakar et al 2010)
Summary
Optimizing agricultural management practices to enhance ecosystem health and maintain high crop yield is important for the sustainable development of agriculture (Garnett et al 2013). Crop residue application is a widely used management practice which can benefit soil fertility and ecosystem functioning by providing trophic resources to the soil, modifying the soil abiotic environment, and enhancing soil biological activities (Edmeades 2003). Optimizing crop residue management is especially important for oil palm (Elaeis guineensis), an economically important tropical crop which produces vegetable oil widely used in the production of food and detergents and as a feedstock for biofuel. The land area under oil palm cultivation has reached 16.4 million ha globally in 2014, equivalent to 10% of the world’s permanent croplands
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