Oil Palm Land Research Articles

ANALISIS KESEIMBANGAN EKSPOR DAN IMPOR CRUDE PALM OIL (CPO) INDONESIA

This research aims study is to explain the area of oil palm, the productivity of oil palm, CPO export offers for the year, CPO import demand and the balance of Indonesia CPO export and import. we use time series data for 1981-2014 years and econometrics models in the form of simultaneous equations with 2SLS method. The focus of the study is the balance of Indonesia's CPO export and import for the period 1981-2014 years. Statistical analysis of multiple linear regression using the Shazam 10. F Test Results show that the current domestic CPO prices, current domestic rubber prices, the area of oil palm land in the previous year had a significant effect on land area. Current CPO export prices, current domestic CPO prices, and previous year's oil palm productivity have a significant effect on CPO productivity and the current fertilizer prices have no significant effect. Current CPO export prices, current CPO production and previous year's CPO exports, the current rupiah exchange rate against the dollar today has a significant effect on CPO export offers while the current rupiah against the dollar has no significant effect on export offers. Current CPO import prices, current GDP have a significant effect on CPO import demand while the previous year's import demand had no significant effect on import demand. The CPO export offer of the previous year had a significant effect on the balance of Indonesia's CPO export prices while the rupiah exchange rate against the current dollar, current CPO production, CPO export of the previous year, current year's GDP and import of the previous year had no significant effect on Indonesia's CPO export price balance. Keywords: Land Area, Domestic CPO Production, CPO Productivity, CPO Exports, CPO Imports, Domestic CPO Prices, CPO Export Prices, CPO Import Prices, Rubber Prices, Exchange Rates, GDP and Fertilizer Prices.

PENGARUH PEMANFAATAN LIMBAH CAIR PABRIK KELAPA SAWIT TERHADAP SIFAT KIMIA DAN FISIKA TANAH PADA LAHAN PERKEBUNAN KELAPA SAWIT MILIK PT.PMP KABUPATEN MAYBRAT

Palm oil mill effluent (POME) is the most abundant waste produced from palm oil mills. POME waste products from palm oil mills can pollute the surrounding environment. The main objective of this study was to determine the use of POME on soil fertility and increase the growth of oil palm plants and minimize negative impacts on the environment. The results of the research obtained are a combination of primary data (results of analysis carried out in oil palm plantations owned by PT PMP, Maybrat Regency before the POME application) and secondary data (results of analysis carried out at Angsana Estate oil palm plantations, South Kalimantan after POME application). The results obtained indicate that generally after the application of POME to the land will increase the value of the bulk density and decrease the value of soil porosity and soil permeability. There was a decrease in the percentage of soil porosity in the application area (LA, 28.75% and Flatbed, 23.47%) compared to without application (LK, 36.83%) in the soil depth up to 30 cm. On soils with a deeper depth (30-60 cm) the percent of land subsidence is almost the same as at a depth of 30 cm. Conversely, the addition of POME in the land application (LA) had an impact on the increase in bulk density (1.81 g / cm3) and soil permeability (4.16 cm / hour) compared without POME (LK) (1.48 g / cm3 and 4.08 cm / hour) for soil samples to a depth of 30 cm. The POME application increases the availability of organic matter (C-organic and nitrogen) in the surface soils. The highest P-available values ​​are seen at a depth of 0-20 cm and 20-40 cm in the flatbed. Also, POME on oil palm land tends to increase nutrient content in oil palm leaves compared to control land (without POME).

Model of surface runoff estimation on oil palm plantation with or without biopore infiltration hole using SCS-CN and ANN methods

Surface runoff by rainfall on oil palm-cultivated land can cause erosion. Method conservation of making biopore infiltration hole on sloping oil palm plantations land has been shown to reduce this runoff. It has been experimentally proven in plots with or without biopores. However, the estimation model of the surface runoff event has not been studied comprehensively. The main novelty of this work is using surface runoff and rainfall observation directly database on oil palm land for the predicted runoff. Estimates model of surface runoff on oil palm plantations are essential to know so that farmers can determine which land conservation is more appropriate in the order they can do forecasting and preparedness for extreme events in their land. In the current study, this paper report to compare two methods of estimating surface runoff model on oil palm land that are given biopores and without biopores using (i) conservation service soil - curve number (SCS-CN) and (ii) artificial neural network (ANN) back-propagation. Thirty data of rainfall and runoff events in the three months were used as input data. The results show that the ANN method can provide a more accurate prediction of surface runoff than the SCS-CN method.

Mapping the spatial distribution and changes of oil palm land cover using an open source cloud-based mapping platform

ABSTRACTOil palm has become well known for its oil palm yields that can be used to produce food, biodiesel and biogas. The rapid expansion of oil palm plantations over large areas has changed the land use and land cover of surroundings. Changes in land covers can be mapped and later used for further analysis. However, obtaining and classifying large coverages require massive amounts of data and computing resources and the skills and time of analysts. The Remote Ecosystem Monitoring Assessment Pipeline (REMAP) provides a cloud computing platform that hosts an open-source stacked Landsat data that allows land cover classification to be implemented using a built-in random forest supervised machine learning algorithm. Classifications were performed with the aid of predictor layers to discriminate the following land covers in Peninsular Malaysia: oil palm, built-up, bare soil, water, forest, other vegetation and paddy. The classification performed on period 1 (1999–2003) and period 2 (2014–2017) data produced an overall accuracy of 80.34% and 79.53% respectively. The analysis of the changes in oil palm distributions from period 1 to period 2 indicated an increment of 23.59%. Further analysis revealed that oil palm expansion in Peninsular Malaysia only minimally affected forested area and is mostly resulted from the conversion of less productive crops to oil palm. Results prove the land cover mapping and change detection capabilities of REMAP as a cloud computing platform for large areas. Despite its limitations, REMAP has the potential to achieve fast-paced mapping over large areas and monitor land changes in oil palm distributions.

SIFAT KIMIA TANAH DAN POPULASI KUMBANG TANDUK (Oryctes rhinoceros L.) STADIA PRADEWASA PADA BERBAGAI KEDALAMAN PENEMPATAN TANDAN KOSONG KELAPA SAWIT

Oil palm is a very significant industrial plant in producing vegetable oils that require high levels of nutrients in its cultivation. Cultivation of oil palm yield can produce industrial waste, the oil palm empty trunks (TKKS) which have the potential to supply nutrients to oil palm land. The placement of empty trunks at various depths is expected can give effect to the population of Oryctes rhinoceros L pre-adult stage and chemical soil properties. This research was conducted on oil palm plantation in PT. Perkebunan Nusantara V Sei Galuh Tapung, Kampar, Riau from July to October 2017. The aim of this research is to examine the effect of empty trunks placement against the Oryctes rhinoceros L population development and chemical soil properties. This research was done using a randomized experiment design complete with the treatment of the depth empty trunks placement (placement of oil palm empty trunks on the ground at the depth of 10 cm, 20 cm, and 30 cm) which is repeated four times. The observed parameters include the population of infestation of Oryctes rhinoceros L (population of eggs, larvae and pupae) and soil chemical properties (soil pH, C-organic, N-total, P-total and K-total). The results showed that empty trunks placed below the surface at various depths affected the Oryctes rhinoceros L population. Placement of TKKS depth in the soil cannot be infested by Oryctes rhinoceros L. Placement of empty trunks at the depth of the soil tends to increase pH (from very acidic categories to acidic categories) and total K (from the low category to very high category), is not effected on C-organic and N-total and can reduce P-total (from the very high category to the high category) if compared to the placement of empty trunks on the ground.Key words : Chemical Soil properties, Oryctes rhinoceros L., Oil palm Empty trunks, Soil depth

Evaluation of Physicochemical Properties of Sandy-Textured Soils under Smallholder Agricultural Land Use Practices in Sarawak, East Malaysia

A study was conducted in the Sabal area, Sarawak, to evaluate the physicochemical properties of sandy-textured soils under smallholder agricultural land uses. Study sites were established under rubber, oil palm, and pepper land uses, in comparison to the adjacent secondary forests. The sandy-textured soils underlain in all agricultural land uses are of Spodosols, based on USDA Soil Taxonomy. The soil properties under secondary forests were strongly acidic with poor nutrient contents. Despite higher bulk density in oil palm farmlands, soil properties in rubber and oil palm land uses showed little variation to those in secondary forests. Conversely, soils under pepper land uses were less acidic with higher nutrient contents at the surface layer, especially P. In addition, soils in the pepper land uses were more compact due to human trampling effects from regular farm works at a localized area. Positive correlations were observed between soil total C and soil total N, soil exchangeable K, soil sum of bases, and soil effective CEC, suggesting that soil total C is the determinant of soil fertility under the agricultural land uses. Meanwhile, insufficient K input in oil palm land uses was observed from the partial nutrient balances estimation. In contrast, P and K did not remain in the soils under pepper land use, although the fertilizers application by the farmers was beyond the crop uptake and removal (harvesting). Because of the siliceous sandy nature (low clay contents) of Spodosols, they are poor in nutrient retention capacity. Hence, maintaining ample supply of organic C is crucial to sustain the productivity and fertility of sandy-textured soils, especially when the litterfall layers covering the E horizon were removed for oil palm and pepper cultivation.

Investment and Liability on Oil Palm Land Use and Environmental Sustainability

Indonesia as developed country which posses’ abundant natural resources has potential as producer of oil palm plantation due to its climate and the support from oil palm plantation investors. Oil palm plantation development has to guarantee the sustainability of surrounding environmental condition based on article The Law Number 39 of Year 2014 Concerning Plantation the Law Number 31 of Year 2009 Concerning Protection and Management of Environment. Infringement against the law - such as logging the forest irresponsibly by employing land combustion method in order to create a new oil palm plantation without spending too much cost and in order to accelerate the oil palm growth process - continuously happens. Such fact has been found out through court verdicts as well as academic researches. As the result, it created deteriorated ecosystem as shown by lack of soil nutrient, land infertility, erosion and flood. Due to massive impact resulted from such action; crime against environment might be categorized as extra ordinary crime. Therefore, crime against environment requires special concern from Indonesian Financial Services Authority by imposing financial control on the Plantation Company, profile assessment and supervision from central government as well as local government.

Oil palm land conversion in Pará, Brazil, from 2006–2014: evaluating the 2010 Brazilian Sustainable Palm Oil Production Program

Global models of biophysical suitability for oil palm consistently rank Brazil as having the greatest potential for expansion, with estimates as high as 238 Mha of suitable lands. In 2010, Brazil launched the Sustainable Palm Oil Production Program (SPOPP) to incentivize oil palm development without deforestation on as much as 30 Mha. Here we examine oil palm expansion before and after the SPOPP’s launch. In Pará, the major oil palm producing state in Brazil, we analyze the extent and change in oil palm cultivation from 2006−2014 using satellite imagery, ground-truthed verification, site-based interviews, and rural environmental (land) registration data. Between 2006−2014, oil palm area (≥9 ha) expanded >200% to ~219 000 ha. Of the ~148 000 ha of oil palm developed, ~91% converted pasturelands while ~8% replaced natural vegetation, including intact and secondary forests. Although >80% of all oil palm parcels rest <0.5 km from intact forests, direct conversion of intact forests declined from ~4% pre-SPOPP (2006−2010) to <1% post-SPOPP (2010−2014).Despite low and declining deforestation rates associated with oil palm expansion in Pará, our results also show a low area of oil palm development overall compared with reported land suitability. To explore potential contributing factors, we conducted semi-structured interviews with researchers, company representatives, and government officials involved in the sector to characterize the perceived factors influencing oil palm development and the role of agro-ecological suitability mapping among them. Interviews indicated that: (1) individual effects of suitability mapping efforts to encourage oil palm expansion on cleared areas, i.e. without deforestation, cannot be disentangled from pre-existing public and private deforestation reduction initiatives; and, (2) socio-economic constraints, e.g. high relative production costs and limited familiarity with this crop, appear to partially explain the major discrepancy between estimated potential suitable areas with realized oil palm development.

Study of Water Quality in Bengalon River on Oil Palm Estate

Study of Water Quality in Bengalon’s River on Oil Palm Estate. Increasing of population had effect the Land cover condition and cause the polluted. Oil palm land clearing are potentially cause the pollutants in waters so that required for monitoring the quality condition. Study aims to determine the water quality based on physical, chemical and biological parameters and determine water quality standard status in accordance the Government Regulation. Research was conducted for two months in Bengalon’s River, East Kutai Regency, East Kalimantan Province. Research applies with Storet method by the reference on Government Ordinance Number 82 Year 2001, observation and documentation method, physical parameter: Temperature, TDS and TSS Turbidity, chemical parameters: pH, BOD, COD, DO, Nitrate, Nitrite, H2S as Sulfate and Iron and biological parameters: E.Coli Bacteria. The research results the waters of Bengalon’s river have been polluted by TSS, DO and Iron whereas the other parameters are still in normal condition. It showed that the waters condition of Bengalon’s river is still classified as lightly contaminated so that still can be used for class I, II, III, and IV but it provided through further processing.

INTRODUCTION TO SPECIAL ISSUE 4 : 2017

This issue of Planning Malaysia Journal includes a mixture of articles addressing various issues in contemporary urban planning. Article 1 raises the question of whether green initiatives in educational institutions, especially universities, were successful in producing green graduates. A survey among green and non-green universities students showed that there is no significant difference in the level of perception, attitude and responsible environmental behaviour between green and non-green universities graduates. Thus, it suggests that students’ involvement in universities’ green initiatives should be increased.Article 2 discusses the impacts of street urban design on the perceived safety by women respondents. As women’s role in the cities becoming more pronounced, the authors suggest that streets and urban design should consider the safety of women so that street can become a safe and highly utilised public space. Article 3 looks at the factors affecting house prices in Malaysia in order to determine the alternative benchmark for Islamic home financing scheme. It shows that house price index are influenced by economic growth, demand for housing loan and construction materials. Article 4, in the meantime, compares the Islamic home financing schemes on offer in Malaysia nowadays, and suggest that there is a need for banks to move on from the Al-Bay Bithaman Ajil to Musharakah Mutanaqisah Partnership housing financing scheme.Article 5 looks how innovative management of natural resources leads to increased participation of the local community and improved revenue for rural businesses. These, in turn, motivates local stakeholders to continue preserving the resources. Article 6 examines the practices regarding food waste management in hotels in Langkawi. It found that there was a lack of emphasis from the hotels on their policy related to wastage of food and unsustainable food consumption pattern by their guests. This reflects on the lack of practices towards sustainable food waste management by the hotel sector.Article 7 identifies changes and threats to Malay landscape preservation in traditional Malays houses in Melaka and Kelantan. It concludes that threats to such preservation include inappropriate use of garden space, problems regarding house ownership, inadequate fund for maintenance, and current development trend that leads to traditional Malay garden setting being replaced by modern setting.Article 8 discusses the use of agroforestry approach to improve sustainability of oil palm smallholdings. Rapid development and expansion of natural forest into oil palm land has decreased the agricultural sustainability of Malaysian oil palm production. However, the article shows that sustainability of oil palm smallholdings can be improved through agroforestry, which at the same time was found to also improve income of the smallholders.

INTRODUCTION TO SPECIAL ISSUE 4 : PLANNING MALAYSIA JOURNAL

This issue of Planning Malaysia Journal includes a mixture of articles addressing various issues in contemporary urban planning. Article 1 raises the question of whether green initiatives in educational institutions, especially universities, were successful in producing green graduates. A survey among green and non-green universities students showed that there is no significant difference in the level of perception, attitude and responsible environmental behaviour between green and non-green universities graduates. Thus, it suggests that students’ involvement in universities’ green initiatives should be increased.Article 2 discusses the impacts of street urban design on the perceived safety by women respondents. As women’s role in the cities becoming more pronounced, the authors suggest that streets and urban design should consider the safety of women so that street can become a safe and highly utilised public space. Article 3 looks at the factors affecting house prices in Malaysia in order to determine the alternative benchmark for Islamic home financing scheme. It shows that house price index are influenced by economic growth, demand for housing loan and construction materials. Article 4, in the meantime, compares the Islamic home financing schemes on offer in Malaysia nowadays, and suggest that there is a need for banks to move on from the Al-Bay Bithaman Ajil to Musharakah Mutanaqisah Partnership housing financing scheme.Article 5 looks how innovative management of natural resources leads to increased participation of the local community and improved revenue for rural businesses. These, in turn, motivates local stakeholders to continue preserving the resources. Article 6 examines the practices regarding food waste management in hotels in Langkawi. It found that there was a lack of emphasis from the hotels on their policy related to wastage of food and unsustainable food consumption pattern by their guests. This reflects on the lack of practices towards sustainable food waste management by the hotel sector.Article 7 identifies changes and threats to Malay landscape preservation in traditional Malays houses in Melaka and Kelantan. It concludes that threats to such preservation include inappropriate use of garden space, problems regarding house ownership, inadequate fund for maintenance, and current development trend that leads to traditional Malay garden setting being replaced by modern setting.Article 8 discusses the use of agroforestry approach to improve sustainability of oil palm smallholdings. Rapid development and expansion of natural forest into oil palm land has decreased the agricultural sustainability of Malaysian oil palm production. However, the article shows that sustainability of oil palm smallholdings can be improved through agroforestry, which at the same time was found to also improve income of the smallholders.

Temperature Effect Investigation toward Peat Surface CO2 Emissions by Planting Leguminous Cover Crops in Oil Palm Plantations in West Kalimantan

The aim of this research was to know the impact of planting leguminous cover crops (LCCs) of Mucuna bracteata and Calopogonium mucunoides in oil palm plantation on peatland on reducing CO2 emissions. Atmosphere temperature, peat surface temperature, in-closed chamber temperature and peat surface CO2 fluxes were monitored on two adjacent experimental plots. The first experimental plot was on the newly opened peat surface (NOPS) and another was on the eight years planted oil palm land (EPOL). The closed chamber techniques adopted from International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) (1993) were implemented to trap CO2 emissions emitted from 24 treatment plots at the 1st, 3rd and 6th months observations. Average CO2 fluxes observed on no LCCs plots in the NOPS site were 61.25 ± 8.98, 33.76 ± 2.92 and 33.75 ± 3.45 g/mh , while in the EPOL site were 55.38 ± 15.95, 29.90 ± 5.32 and 27.70 ± 4.62 g/mh at the 1st, 3rd and 6th months monitoring, respectively. Average CO2 fluxes observed on the planted M. bracteata plots in the NOPS site were 68.2 ± 24.5, 12.88 ± 3.70 and 10.40 ± 1.28 g/mh, whereas in the EPOL site were 54.04 ± 6.70, 11.45 ± 2.00 and 9.33 ± 3.49 g/mh at the 1st, 3rd and 6th months monitoring, respectively. Average CO2 flux observed on the planted C. mucunoides plots in the NOPS site were 66.5 ± 23.7, 15.41 ± 1.51 and 9.74 ± 2.55 g/mh, while in the EPOL site were 47.00 ± 5.00, 9.34 ± 1.23 and 10.52 ± 4.80 g/mh at the 1st, 3rd and 6th months, respectively. P-value for the experimental sites was 0.008 (< 0.05), indicating the significant difference in the level of CO2 fluxes between the sites. P-value for the treatments in the experimental plots was 0.000 (< 0.05), indicating markedly different level of CO2 fluxes among treatments. P-value for the age of M. bracteata and C. mucunoides planted on the experimental plots was 0.000 (< 0.05), indicating the significant difference in the level of CO2 fluxes due to the enhanced LCCs age performing at the increase of shading effects. The comparison of CO2 fluxes among experimental plots shows that planting M. bracteata and C. mucunoides on the peatland could reduce CO2 emission.

Contested territorialization and biophysical expansion of oil palm plantations in Indonesia

Palm oil is used in human nutrition and industrial products including cosmetics and biodiesel. Exponential growth in oil palm land and palm oil production in Indonesia currently make the country the world’s largest producer of this vegetable oil. The expansion of oil palm plantations is linked to processes of territorialization and reterritorialization from the 1960s until today. Under the so-called New Order of Suharto from 1966 onwards, territorialization processes were geared toward achieving centralization. Oil palm plantations were instrumental in exercising this central control over the Outer Islands and simultaneously provided an important export commodity for the opening of the Indonesian economy. In the wake of the 1997/1998 Asian economic crisis and with the end of Suharto’s rule, Indonesia entered a period of reform marked by decentralization and related reterritorialization processes. Oil palm plantations continued to grow as foreign investment and plantation ownership by private businesses became increasingly relevant. Based on the size and composition of Indonesian material use, the argument can be made that territorialization and reterritorialization processes played a decisive role in establishing and upholding extractivism as a development pathway. The specific forms of (re)territorialization in the expansion of plantation agriculture in Indonesia, however, are contested and associated with competing claims for alternative forms of territorialization.

Analysis the Oil Palm Land which can be Converted Into Paddy Fields in Irrigated Areas of Batang Tongar

An increasing number of shift functions of agricultural land into non-farming land, as well as the increasing development of the palm oil plantation area makes food program resilience increasingly difficult to be realized. Fields shift function also occurs in West Pasaman, which is still producing paddy fields converted into plantation. This research aims to analyze the oil palm land which can be converted into paddy fields. The confirmation of oil palm land which can be converted into paddy fields performed by some indicator, such as commitment, physical condition, the range of irrigation water, institutional and the width of the area. Based on the results of the analysis, the recommended oil palm area that can be converted into paddy fields in irrigated areas of Batang Tongar is 2.451 ha (73%) and not recommended area is 540 ha (27%). The unrecommended area caused by uncommitment farmer who change their oil palm area in paddy field and the farmer field which is irrigated in damaged condition so the water cannot be flow into the field.

The Usage of BIOM3G-Biofertilizer to Improve and Support Sustainability of Land System of Independent Oil Palm Smallholders

Soil fertility is one of the key success factors for managing independent smallholder oil palm plantation sustainably. To improve soil fertility, the smallholder oil palm farmers depend highly on the chemical fertilizer which emits greenhouse gases N₂O and are fragile to chemical fertilizer shortage. This dependency to chemical fertilizer and increased price of chemical fertilizer may cause some independent smallholder plantations are neglected and fruitless due to late nor absence of fertilizers. In the country with plentiful of oil palm plantations, biomass of oil palm empty fruit bunch should be considered as a sustainable source of organic fertilizers. This research examined the effect of dosage of composted oil palm empty fruit bunch enriched with multi functions multi microbial biofertilizer implanted within the soil below canopy edges of oil palm plants towards the growth and yield of oil palm plants. The treatments consisted of 3.5, 7.0, and 10.5 ton biofertilizer/ha and standard chemical fertilizer treatment as control. Each treatment was applied on ten plants. The results of this study showed that the biofertilizer application at 10.5 ton/ha improved the quality of soil better than other treatment of biofertilizer and standard chemical fertilizer. The production yield of fresh fruit brunches of 10.5 ton biofertilizer/ha treatment was 31.5 ton/hectare/year. If the oil palm production is compared to farmer’s practice that produces 24 ton/hectare/year, these research results may promote better organic wastes management of oil palm plantation to better nourish the plants and improve sustainability of oil palm land system.

Relational Economies, Social Embeddedness and Valuing Labour in Agrarian Change: An Example from the Developing World

AbstractA relatively neglected area of research on agrarian and economic change is the role of indigenous concepts of labour value in the transition from subsistence to market production. In West New Britain Province, Papua New Guinea, the presence of a migrant population on an oil palm land settlement scheme (LSS) in close proximity to village‐based oil palm growers, provided an opportunity to examine changing notions of labour value through the lens of smallholder productivity. Voluntary settlers on the LSS are experiencing population pressure and are highly dependent on oil palm for their livelihoods. In contrast, customary landowners in village settings produce oil palm in a situation of relative land abundance. By examining differences in how these two groups practise and value commodity production, the paper makes four key points. First, concepts of labour value are not static and involve struggles over how labour value is defined. Second, the transition to market‐based notions of labour value can undermine labour's social value with a consequent weakening of social relationships within and between families. Third, Theories of Value developed in western contexts and used to frame development policies and projects in the developing world are often inappropriate and even harmful to the welfare of communities that have different registers of value. Fourth, in response to Point 3, and following Rigg (2007), there is a need for ‘theorising upwards’ using empirical data from the developing world to inform theory rather than applying to the developing world models of sociality and economy developed in western contexts.

Modeling Site Suitability for Oil Palm Plantations in Southern Thailand

This study developed a methodology for land evaluation, using a multifactor evaluation in GIS. The Analytical Hierarchical Processing (AHP) and the Pairwise Comparison Method were employed for factor ranking and weighting. The Pairwise Comparison Method required experience in rating relative preferences. An experimental design approach was applied to address this requirement. Proposed models were analyzed and extensively tested against ground reference data and the overall accuracy of the method was compared with the results from a conventional method adopted by the Department of Agriculture, Thailand. The results indicated that the new method is an improvement over the previous one in terms of accuracy in the suitability ranking. It can be employed to assist in the prediction and modeling of oil palm land suitability.

Making a living: Land pressures and changing livelihood strategies among oil palm settlers in Papua New Guinea

Since the establishment of oil palm land settlement schemes (LSSs) in West New Britain Province, Papua New Guinea, the settler population has increased significantly as second-generation settlers marry and raise families on their parents’ blocks. We explore how settlers are responding to demographic and socio-economic change in an environment in which opportunities for land-use change are limited. In the context of rising population pressure, LSS smallholders are developing innovative livelihood strategies by pursuing non-farm income sources, increasing food production, acquiring additional land and migration. The type of migration or land accumulation strategy depends on household access to various resources, especially social and kinship networks, and capital. Agricultural extension and rural development policies have not yet responded to this socio-agronomic transformation. We conclude that economic diversification amongst smallholders creates new opportunities for the oil palm industry to formulate more innovative and sustainable policies that strengthen the oil palm industry in PNG while facilitating broad-based rural development.