Oil palm: a sustainable agro-industry in Colombia

Abstract

Colombia's rural sector has the potential to mitigate poverty and contribute to the econo- mic development process. For this, its contri- bution must consider environmental, social and economic variables. Environmentally, the conception of agriculture as a depredatory acti- vity is now behind given way to an agriculture that takes into account the needs of future generations. Socially, we view rural popula- tions in terms of political stability, and the need to redistribute resources as a starting point for a process of balanced development. Economi- cally, the agricultural sector increasingly contri- butes to the integration of agricultural activity with the other sectors of the economy, going beyond the net production of raw materials. Incorporating these elements, the cultivation of oil palm in Colombia has evolved to become one of the main government strategies for generating rural employment and income. From the perspective of its progress and achie- vements, this document describes the sustaina- bility of the Colombian oil palm culture in these three important areas: economic, social and environmental. Context The cultivation of oil palm has developed most intensely in Malaysia and Indonesia, who share about 80% of the entire oil palm production area in the world. At the secondary level, by order of importance, are Nigeria, Thailand, Colombia and Ivory Coast. Together, these countries account for about 12% of the world's palm producing area. By 2003, South America harvested about four hundred thousand hectares of oil palm, 40% of them in Colombia producing slightly more than 50% of the region's fruit, due to its higher volume of production per area unit (table 1). Colombia: regional distribution of cultivated area It is estimated that in 2004 Colombia reached a total of 243,000 hectares planted to oil palm. However 80,000 of which are still in the development stage and unproductive (1). Compared to other oil palm producing coun- tries, Colombia has four contrasting oil palm producing zones: 1) the Western Zone: at the south of western Colombia, on the Pacific coast; 2) the Northern Zone: in the northeastern part of the country, near the Atlantic coast; 3) the Central Zone: an inter-Andean valley of the Magdalena River system; and 4) the Eastern Zone: at the foothills of the Eastern chain of the Andes range (figure 1). In 2004, the Eastern Zone concentrated the largest area planted in oil palm, at 31.4%, followed by the Northern Zone at 31%, the Central Zone with 25.2% and finally the Wes- tern Zone with 12.5%. Yet, the potential area for production of oil palms in Colombia, without mayor agronomic restrictions, is more than 3.2 million hectares. These areas are loca- ted mainly in the Eastern Zone (59%), in the Central Zone (21%) and the Northern Zone (18%) (2). In other words, the country has the potential to significantly increase the oil palm growing area. Sector production and GDP