Better Farming Series 25 - The Rubber Tree

(introduction...) Preface Preparing the seedlings Preparing the ground and making the plantation Looking after the plantation Tapping Suggested question paper

(introduction...)

Published by arrangement with the
Institut africain pour le dloppement nomique et social
B.P. 8008, Abidjan, Cd'Ivoire

FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS
Rome 1977

FAO Economic and Social/ Development Series No. 3/25

First printing 1977

ISBN 92-5-100156-1

© French edition, Institut africain pour le dloppement nomique et social (INADES) 1969
© English edition, FAO 1977

(introduction...)

This manual is a translation and adaptation of "L'ha," published by the Agri- Service- Afrique of the Institut africain pour le dloppement nomique et social (INADES), and forms part of a series of 26 booklets. Grateful acknowledgement is made to the publishers for making available this text, which it is hoped will find widespread use at the intermediate level of agricultural education and training in English speaking countries.

The original texts were prepared for an African environment and this is naturally reflected in the English version. However, it is expected that many of the manuals of the series a list of which will be found on the inside front cover will also be of value for training in many other parts of the world. Adaptations can be made to the text where necessary owing to different climatic and ecological conditions.

Applications for permission to issue this manual in other languages are welcomed. Such applications should be addressed to: Director, Publications Division, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Via delle Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome, Italy.

The author of this English version is Mr. A.J. Henderson, former Chief of the FAO Editorial Branch.

Why rubber trees are grown

The rubber tree is grown because rubber is made from the latex in its bark.

The rubber tree has roots made up of a tap- root and creeping roots.

In the bark of the rubber tree there is a liquid called latex.

The latex is harvested by making a slit in the bark, that is, by cutting a piece of bark.

The latex makes the rubber that is used:

· in the tires of bicycles, motorcars and airplanes;
· for the soles of shoes;
· for many other things.

Rubber is in great demand all over the world; more and more of it is needed.

But it is very difficult to grow rubber trees well and to harvest the latex.

They cannot be grown everywhere.

They need:

· a high temperature;
· plenty of water;
· moist air, though they can withstand a dry season.

Where rubber trees are grown

Rubber trees are grown in regions that are hot and moist, that is:

· in Africa (250 000 tons of natural rubber);
· in Central and South America (31 700 tons of natural rubber)
· in Asia, which is the chief producer (3 207 100 tons of natural rubber).

In Africa they are grown mainly in the forest regions.

In Africa the chief producers of natural rubber are:

Liberia	100 000 tons
Nigeria	80 000 tons
Zaire	35 675 tons
Ivory Coast	18 000 tons
Cameroon	12 000 tons
Central African Empire	1 250 tons
Ghana	1 700 tons
Mali	1 100 tons
Congo	160 tons

These production Figures (for 1974) are from the FAO Production Yearbook 1974.

To grow good rubber trees and harvest plenty of latex, you must:

· prepare the seedlings well;
· make a good plantation;
· look after the plantation;
· harvest the latex well.

(introduction...)

It takes a long time to get good rubber tree seedlings to put in the plantation.

It takes two years to get seedlings for putting in the plantation.

To raise seedlings for the plantation, you must:

· make the seeds germinate in the germinator;
· put the germinated seeds in the nursery;
· look after the nursery;
· graft the young seedlings in the nursery.

Germinating seeds in the germinator

To do this, you have to:

· make the germinator;
· choose the seeds;
· put the seeds in the germinator.

· Making the germinator

A germinator is the place where you sow the seeds to make therm germinate.

To make a germinator you must choose ground that is quite flat, that has no vegetable refuse on it; you must choose a spot that can be easily watered.

Make beds 1 metre wide.

Each bed is edged with planks, so as to make a box.

Into each box put sand to a depth of 10 centimetres.

Cover the germinator with a roof made of straw.

The roof must be at least 1 metre above ground, so that you can get underneath it to put the seeds to germinate.

The roof

· Choosing the seeds

To get good seeds, it is best to ask for them at a seed selection centre.

The seeds must be put in the germinator as soon as they have been harvested for they very quickly become unable to germinate.

When you put the seeds in the germinator, you must look to see if each seed is shiny and bright. If is not, do not put it in, because it will not germinate.

· Putting the seeds in the germinator

Push the seed half way into the sand, with the rounded side of the seed uppermost.

Push the seed half way into the sand

Put the seeds close together, side by side, and water them.

To make a plantation of 1 hectare, with 625 trees, you must put 1 700 seeds to germinate. So you must have a germinator 1.7 metres long and 1 metre wide.

A week later the seed has germinated, and the rootlet is about 2 centimetres long.

This is the time to take the seeds out of the germinator and put them in the nursery.

Putting the germinated seeds in the nursery

The nursery is the place where you put the germinated seeds so that they will grow into young rubber trees.

· The soil of the nursery must be well prepared

Choose a spot that is easy to water.

Grub up all trees.

A few days before planting the germinated seeds remove all vegetable refuse.

The soil must be tilled by hand very deeply, to at least 60 centimetres, with a hoe.

Then the soil must be levelled and harrowed to break up clods.

This is how the nursery is made ready for the germinated seeds.

Putting the germinated seeds in the nursery

The germinated seeds are planted in rows. In each row leave 40 centimetres between seeds. Leave 30 centimetres between the rows. Plant the seedlings (germinated seeds) in alternate spacing, as shown in the drawing on page 9. Make four rows in each nursery bed. Leave 60 centimetres between the nursery beds. After every four beds, leave a space of 1.20 metres. 

Thus 1 hectare will contain 58 000 seedlings. 

To make a plantation of 1 hectare, you have to plant 1 500 germinated seeds; that means two nursery beds, each 70 metres long.

When transplanting the seedlings, press the soil well down round the tap- root and the rootless, without damaging them.

Water the seedlings as soon as you have transplanted them.

Plan of nursery

Plan of nursery

Looking after the nursery

You must hoe often to get rid of weeds, and to keep the soil moist.

In the dry season you must water rather often. But do not water in the middle of the day. Water in the morning or in the evening.

If the soil is not very fertile, you can give it fertilizer, as follows:

· The first time, 2 months after transplanting, give 150 kilogrammes of ammonium phosphate to each hectare and 75 kilogrammes of potassium chloride to each hectare. This means that for a bed of 70 square metres you need 1 kilogramme of ammonium phosphate and 0.5 kilogramme of potassium chloride.

· The second time, 5 months after transplanting, give the same amounts.

But you must get advice from technical officers, because different soils have different needs.

Ten months after transplanting to the nursery, take out the young plants that have not grown well.

When the young plants are between 12 and 15 months old, during the short rainy season, grafting must be done.

Grafting is a difficult job. You must pay great attention to it.

Grafting young plants

Grafting means putting into a young plant (the stock) a little piece of a branch (the scion) taken from a tree of good quality.

The young plant in the nursery is the stock. It will provide the roots of the plant which is to be put into the plantation.

You take a piece of a branch from a tree that gives plenty of latex this is called the scion. The scion will provide the stem of the plant that is to be put into the plantation.

To graft you use a grafting knife with a very sharp blade.

Grafting knife

To do the grafting, you have to:

· prepare the young plant from the nursery (the stock)
· take the scion from a tree of good quality;
· place the scion in the stock.

Afterwards look to see if the graft has succeeded.

· Preparing the stock

When the young plant in the nursery (the stock) is 3 or 3.5 centimetres thick, it can be grafted.

A few centimetres above the ground, make two cuts in the stock about 4 or 5 centimetres long and 2 centimetres apart. Then make one cut at the bottom to join the other two cuts at the lower end.

Preparing the stock

All these cuts are made in the bark only. You must not cut into the wood.

You will see, if you cut a stem right across, that

· outside is the bark;
· inside is the hard wood.

You cut a stem right across

The cuts must be made so that the bark can be peeled back.

Make the cuts on 20 plants, one after the other. You will see a white liquid flowing out. This is the latex.

· Taking the scion

Ask at a selection centre for rubber tree branches for grafting. These branches have about the same thickness as the stock. They are called grafting wood.

These branches for grafting have no leaves; the leaves have been taken off 10 days before cutting the branches. As soon as the selection centre has given you the grafting wood, the grafts must be done at once, during the next 24 hours.

In the first- year course we learned that on the stem there are buds below the leaves. If you look closely just below a leaf you will see that there is a bud.

This bud is called an eye.

Bud

To get a scion, take an eye with a little piece of the bark round it.

Take a branch of grafting wood in order to remove an eye from it. Round this eye make two cuts 5 or 6 centimetres long and 1 or 2 centimetres apart. You will see the latex flow out.

Make two cuts

Remove the eye by cutting into the wood of the branch with the grafting knife.

Remove the eye

Now you have a piece of grafting wood with an eye in the centre of it.

Eye

If you look at the back of this piece of wood, you will see that:

· in the middle there is wood;
· round the outside is bark.
· Putting the scion in the stock

Wood

With a rag, wipe off the latex that has flowed out of the stock.

Peel back gently the strip of bark cut when preparing the stock.

You must not touch the underside of this strip with your finger

You must not touch the underside

Take the piece removed from the grafting wood. Make two cuts, one on each side of the eye, so as to mark off the scion.

Make two cuts

Peel off the piece of bark with the eye. Do not take any wood and do not touch the underside of the scion.

Peeling off the scion

Now you have the scion by itself.

Next, put the scion under the strip of bark peeled back on the stock.

Do not touch the wood of the stock and the back of the scion.

Strip of bark

Put back the strip of bark over the scion and bind it to the trunk with a band 4 centimetres wide and 60 centimetres long. The graft is finished.

To plant 1 hectare, 1 400 plants must be grafted.

Three weeks after making the graft, take away the band and cut the strip of bark at the top of the vertical cuts. The graft has been successful if the scion is well joined to the stock, and if the graft is green when you scratch it a little. There should be at least 85% of successes.

The young plants are now left in the nursery until the next rainy season. Then the grafted plants will be put into final position in the plantation.

(introduction...)

To make a good plantation, you must:

· prepare the soil well;
· do the planting well.

Preparing the soil

Choose deep soil that is never flooded. Then the tap- root of the rubber tree can go down well into the soil.

Once the site is chosen, you have to:

· clear the ground;
· stake out the rows;
· make terraces to control erosion.

· Clearing the ground

Remove the trees by grubbing them. Take the earth away round the base of each tree and cut the roots. Then the tree will fall, pulling out its stump.

At the beginning of the dry season, do any burning that is necessary.

· Staking the rows

This means putting stakes where the trees are to be planted. If the ground slopes, the stakes must be placed along the contour lines. Put the stakes 2 metres apart in each row. Make the rows 8 metres apart. This will give 625 plants on 1 hectare.

After this, you must put the grubbed- out trees between the rows.

· Making terraces on the contour lines

When the ground slopes, terraces must be made along the contour lines to prevent erosion.

Take away the soil above the stake and put it lower down.

The terrace should be 2 metres wide.

Dig a trench 0.35 metre deep and 0.35 metre wide.

Make the terrace slope a little against the slope of the land.

The stake is 1.40 metres from the trench.

The terrace

Everything must be finished by the beginning of the rainy season before planting.

At the beginning of the rainy season, sow cover crop plants between the terraces. In forested country use Tithonia diversifolia, in savanna, plant Pueraria.

The site is then ready for the plantation.

Putting the young plants in the plantation

At the beginning of the rainy season, put the young plants in the plantation.

A month before planting, make holes at the points marked by the stakes.

The holes should be 60 centimetres deep, 60 centimetres long and 60 centimetres wide. The bottom soil must be kept separate from the top soil.

Refill the hole 10 days before planting, putting the bottom soil down below.

The bottom soil

Take out the young plants in the nursery by cutting the tap- root at a depth of 70 centimetres.

Then trim the plant as follows:

· cut the stem 5 centimetres above the graft;
· cut the tap- root 60 centimetres from the base of the stem;
· trim all side roots back to the tap- root.

Then make a hole with a dibber. Push the tap- root into the soil at the bottom of the hole, and pack the soil well all round the tap- root. The plant must stand upright.

Then fill up the hole, putting back a little soil and pressing it down well. You must put only a little soil at a time and press it well down as you go on.

(introduction...)

To have a good plantation that gives a lot of latex the planter must:

· look after the plantation before tapping;
· look after the plantation after tapping;
· protect the rubber trees against diseases and insects.

Looking after the plantation before tapping

To look after the plantation before tapping, you must: take good care of the trees; make clearings, that is, remove the less good trees, and those that have not grown well;

· look after the soil.
· Taking care of the trees

The trees must be:

· disbudded;
· replaced where missing;
· pruned.

· Disbudding

Disbudding means to remove buds that have grown.

When the scion grows, it forms a stem; on this stem shoots appear. All the shoots up to a height of 3 metres from the ground must be removed. There will then be a fine trunk with branches only above 3 metres that will form the crown of the tree. (The crown is all the branches that grow from the trunk.)

· Replacing missing trees

During the first year after planting, trees that have not grown must be replaced.

· Pruning the trees

It may happen that a tree grows without forming a crown of branches at a height of 3 metres. In that case, cut the stem at this height, so that a crown of branches will form.

If the crown is too dense, or if one part has more branches than another, it must be pruned 3 or 4 years after planting.

· Making clearings

As some trees will die, and some will be ill, extra trees have been planted.

When tapping begins (5 years after planting), there must be 500 trees to the hectare; the trees should be 50 centimetres in circumference at a height of 1 metre from the ground.

So from the second year after planting, some trees have to be removed. Remove about 30 trees every year during the second, third, fourth and fifth years.

In choosing what trees to remove, take account of the following:

· disease: diseased trees are the first to be removed; o growth: take out all those that have grown badly;
· close neighbours: removal of trees should leave a regular plantation.

· Looking after the soil

The rubber trees are planted in rows; between the rows of trees are ground cover plants. So you must look after the rows, and look after the ground between the rows.

· Looking after the rows of trees

They must be cultivated with the hoe, by hand, as follows:

· in the year after planting, carry out one cultivation every 3 weeks;
· in the second and third year, one cultivation every month;
· in the fourth year, one cultivation every 6 weeks;
· in the fifth year, one cultivation every 2 months;
· in the sixth year, one cultivation every 3 months.

If the dry season is very dry, the number of cultivations can be reduced.

Weed killers can also be used, making an application every 3 or 4 months.

· Looking after the ground between the rows

The ground cover plant must be cut 3 or 4 times a year to a height of 30 or 40 centimetres.

One cutting must be done before the dry season; the cut stems and leaves are used to mulch the rows.

You must remove weeds such as Imperata (a herbaceous plant with hard, long, straight leaves and very long roots). You can pull up the Imperata by hand and then dig up the underground roots with a pick.

If the plantation is well looked after before tapping, it will have fine trees when the time for tapping comes. But you must also take care of the plantation after tapping begins.

Taking care of the plantation after tapping

To keep the plantation in a good state after tapping has begun, you must:

· go on removing unwanted trees;
· take good care of the soil.

· Removing unwanted trees

After about 12 years there should be about 350 trees to the hectare. (There were 450 when tapping began.)

Trees must be removed

· one year after tapping begins;
· three to four years after tapping begins;
· and in the twelfth year, so as to have 350 trees to the hectare.

· Care of the soil

By this time the rubber tree is full grown and covers the soil well, so that few plants grow beneath it. All the same, the soil must be kept clear at the base of the trees.

The cover plants between the rows must be cut once a year.

The terraces must be kept up, so that they do not crumble away.

By looking after the plantation well, you will get fine trees. But you must not let them be attacked by diseases.

Protection against disease and insects

The most serious disease is root rot.

It destroys the roots and makes the tree die.

The rubber tree may also be attacked by insects; they do less serious damage. 

· Control of disease of the roots

The tree may be attacked by white root rot (Fomes), which makes the roots rot.

Then the tree dies.

It is very important to see if white root rot has attacked a tree, because, by the time you see that the tree is ill, it is too late.

Control of white root rot is carried out in two stages: 

First, detecting the disease

During the first five years after planting, twice a year, you must get freshly cut grass and put it close up against the base of each tree. A fortnight later, look to see if there are little white threads on the trees underneath the dry grass.

If you see little white threads, the tree is ill, it has white root rot. So you must treat it.

· Second, treatment of the disease

Dig a hole to uncover the roots of the tree, without injuring them. The hole should be 40 to 50 centimetres deep.

If the roots have been attacked, the tree must be cut down and the roots taken out.

If the roots have not been attacked, and there are only white threads on them, you put a special product on the tap- root and the beginnings of the side roots. This product is called quintozene.

· Control of insects

The most dangerous insects are mites and crickets.

The treatment for insects is to apply lindane.

(introduction...)

Tapping means

· to make a cut in the bark of the rubber tree
· to harvest the latex.

Tapping is difficult to do well. You must take care how you do it.

For a good tapping, you must:

· make a good cut;
· harvest the latex well;
· harvest the latex at the right time.

Before we see how to make the tapping, let us look back at what we learned in the course on plant stems.

Let us see how the trunk of the rubber tree is made.

The trunk of the rubber tree

If you cut through a trunk, you see several layers.

· On the outside is the bark, which is about 6 millimetres thick.

· In the centre is the wood.

· Between the wood and the bark there is a layer which cannot be seen with the naked eye, because it is very thin. This is the cambium layer.

The wood and the bark

The cambium makes the tree grow, by producing wood and bark. So you must not damage it if you want the tree to grow normally.

If you look at rubber tree bark with a microscope, you will see several layers. One of these, the deepest, contains little channels called lactiferous vessels because they contain latex. This layer is next to the cambium.

You see several layers

The lactiferous vessels are little tubes that produce latex.

In tapping, you cut these little tubes containing latex. But you must take care not to cut the cambium.

Starting the tapping

When a tree is 50 centimetres in circumference at a height´. of 1 metre from the ground, that is, 5 years after it has been put in the plantation, you can begin to tap the tree.

To start the tapping, take a metal ribbon attached to a wooden lath 1.10 metres long.

This metal ribbon is at an angle. of 30 degrees to the horizontal.

Metal ribbon

Roll the metal ribbon round the tree. With an awl (an iron point) make a cut along the ribbon. The cut ends when you have gone right round the tree. The beginning of the cut and the end of the cut are on the same vertical line.

With the awl make a vertical channel from the lower edge of the cut.

The cut and the channel must be deepened. This is done with a gouge, a tool that is used by pushing it so as to remove bark.

Sharpened tip

Push the gouge several times along the cut and the channel, taking away a very little bark at a time. You do this so as to cut the bark as close as possible to the cambium, but without damaging it.

As the bark is about 6 millimetres thick the cut must be 4.5 millimetres deep.

The vertical channel is 25 centimetres long. At the lower end of this channel, put a gutter. Below that, put a cup called a latex cup. Tie it to the tree.

The latex flows along the cut, into the channel, and at last, through the gutter, it drops into the cup.

The latex flows

The latex that flows when you first make the cut is not good for harvesting so for several days you do not harvest any latex, but all the same you must come and cut the bark.

Harvesting the latex

Early in the morning, go to the plantation to reopen the cut.

Begin by taking away the latex that has coagulated on the cut and put it in a basket. Take away also any latex that has flowed over the bark.

Then, with the gouge, take out a little piece of bark, 1.5 millimetres thick, without touching the cambium.

Make the cut as far as 1.5 millimetres from the cambium.

Make the cut 11

The latex flows along the cut, then down the channel, and through the gutter, it drops into the latex cup.

Then, 4 hours later, come again and collect what is in the cup. Two days afterwards, clean out the cup.

One man can tap 440 trees a day. The man who does the tapping is called the tapper.

If you make the cut badly, and if you touch the cambium, the bark closes up badly. It splits and turns brown. Then the tapping must be stopped.

There is a product for treating this browning of the bark.

Harvesting latex at the right time

The trees must be tapped very early in the morning, at daybreak, so as to harvest as much latex as possible. If you make the cuts late in the day, you harvest less latex, one third less.

But you must not tap the trees every day.

Each tree should be tapped on a fixed day.

Thus,

· one tree is tapped on Monday and Thursday;
· another, on Tuesday and Friday;
· a third on Wednesday and Saturday.

Each tapper can tap 440 trees. So he will have 3 groups of 440 trees, since he will tap each tree only twice a week. He will have:

· one group tapped on Monday and Thursday;
· one group tapped on Tuesday and Friday;
· one group tapped on Wednesday and Saturday.

|	Monday	|	Tuesday	|	Wednesday	|
|	Thursday	|	Friday	|	Saturday	|

He will stop tapping for two months, in the dry season, that is, at the time when the tree loses its leaves and makes new leaves.

When you have worked over the whole length of the tree, taking away the bark, that is, after 7 years, you can begin again, starting at 1.5 metres from the ground.

You can do this three times. That means you can harvest latex for 28 years. After that, it is best to make a new plantation.

Suggested question paper

FILL IN THE MISSING WORDS

In the bark of the rubber tree there is a liquid called

The place where you sow the seeds to make them germinate is called

For grafting, you use a

The terraces must be made on the

To disbud means

The disease which makes the roots rot is called

Between the wood and the bark there is a layer which cannot be seen with the naked eye; it is called .

The little tubes that produce latex are called

ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS

Why are rubber trees grown?

How do you prepare the young plant (the stock) which is to take the scion? Make a drawing.

How do you take the scion? Make drawings.

How do you make the holes before planting the young trees in the plantation?

How do you protect the trees against white root rot? How do you start the tapping? How do you harvest the latex?

Better Farming Series 24 - The Oil Palm

(introduction...) Preface Modern oil palm cultivation The oil palm nursery The plantation Looking after the plantation Harvesting Suggested question paper

(introduction...)

Published by arrangement with the
Institut africain pour le dloppement nomique et social
B.P. 8008, Abidjan, Cd'Ivoire

FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS
Rome 1977

FAO Economic and Social Development Series No. 3/24

Reprinted 1977, 1983, 1990

P-69

ISBN 92-5-100625-3

© French edition, Institut africain pour le dloppement nomique et social (INADES) 1967
© English edition, FAO 1970

Preface

This manual is a translation on and adaptation of "Le palmier uile,'' published by the Agri-Service- Afrique of the Institut africain pour dloppement nomique social (INADES), and forms part of a series. Grateful acknowledgement is made to the publishers for making available this text, which it is hoped will find widespread use at the intermediate level of agricultural education and training in English- speaking countries.

It should be noted that the original texts were prepared for an African environment and this is naturally reflected in the English version. However, it is expected that many of the manuals of the series - a list of which will be found on the inside front cover - will also be of value for training in many other parts of the world. Adaptations can be made to the text where necessary owning to different climatic and ecological conditions.

Applications for permission to issue this manual in other languages are welcomed. Such applications should be addressed to: Director, Publications Division, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Via delle Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome, Italy.

The cover illustrations were prepared by Asun Balzola.

An oil palm

(introduction...)

1. A modern oil palm plantation needs a grower who has learned how to cultivate oil palms.

Growing selected oil palms is not just a matter of picking the fruit; it is a modern crop. The grower must learn how to do his work well. The grower should ask for advice, so that he learns to do better and better.

The grower must think about his work and plan it, so that he can always do his work at the right time. Selected oil palms give the grower much more work than the natural trees, but they yield much more.

An oil palm grower is a modern farmer. With the money he earns he can buy for his family what they need, and he can modernize his farm.

Before starting think things over carefully

An oil palm begins to produce 3 or 4 years after it has been planted.

During that time the grower must spend money and work hard, without harvesting any fruit or earning any money.

2. To make a modern oil palm plantation takes money.

Most often you will have to pay workmen for clearing the site of the plantation and removing tree stumps.

Then you must buy seedlings and fertilizers.

Unless you apply fertilizers to the oil palms when they are still young, they will not grow well and you will have to wait a longer time before you can begin to harvest.

You may also have to pay workers to help you look after the young plantation. Weeds must not be allowed to get in the way of the oil palms, and the trees must be protected from damage by rats and agoutis.

All this work takes a lot of time, and this means that you may not have enough time to look after large fields of food crops.

You may have to buy food for your family.

Before you start an oil palm plantation, you must calculate carefully whether you will be able to pay all these expenses.

3. To grow oil palms takes a lot of work.

Before planting your oil palms, you have to clear the forest and remove the tree stumps.

Then it takes a lot of time to sow the cover crop, dig holes in the plantation, take the seedlings out of the nursery, carry, them to the plantation and plant them.

All this work needs to be carefully done; you must take your time.

Never hurry if you want to be successful with your plantation.

Once the oil palms are planted, you must put wire netting around the young trees, you must spread fertilizer and keep watch over the plantation.

Young oil palms need a lot of care. It is better to make a smaller plantation, but look after it carefully.

Once the oil palms have begun to produce, the fruit must be harvested at the right moment.

If you cannot pick the fruit at the right moment, it becomes too ripe, many clusters will drop and the quality of the fruit will be less good.

4. To grow oil palms takes much time and much care.

Do not try to cultivate too large an area, or the work will be badly done.

It is better to cultivate a small plantation and to do the work well.

A small plantation that is well looked after can yield more than a large plantation that is badly looked after.

Life of the oil palm

5. The oil palm may have a very long life.

It is important to know about the life of the oil palm. If you know all about the life of the oil palm, you will understand better how to cultivate them.

If you do not take care of the seeds, they will germinate only after several years.

At the research stations, the seeds are kept in a room where it is always very hot.

This makes the seeds germinate sooner, after 90 to 100 days.

6. Each seed germinated is planted in a small plastic container.

A new leaf grows every month.

The young seedling stays in the container for 4 to 5 months.

When you see a left with two points (bifid leaf) coming up, transplant the seedling out into the nursery.

7. The seedling stays in the nursery for 1 year. When it has about 15 green leaves, it is planted in the palm grove.

The seedling is therefore 16 to 18 months old when it is ready to be planted in the palm grove.

Young stem

Seedling with bifid leaf

Spikes of male flowers

8. When the young oil palm has been planted in the palm grove, it produces male flowers.

The flowers form at the base of each leaf.

For several months, the oil palm produces only male flowers.

After that, for several months, it produces only female flowers. 

The male flowers are grouped in spikes. The female flowers form other spikes. The male flowers fertilize the female flowers. Fertilized female flowers turn into a cluster of fruit.

Produces male flowers

9. The oil palm has no branches.

It has a trunk and leaves. The trunk, sometimes called a stipe, is the stem of the palm.

At the tip of the stem there is one bud - one only: 

This is the growing point, which makes the oil palm live and grow.

If the growing point dies, the tree dies as well.

The growing point of the adult oil palm produces 20 to 25 leaves every year.

It is most important that the growing point should produce many leaves, because there will be a flower at the base of each leaf. 

If there are many leaves, there will be many flowers. And if there are many flowers, there will be many clusters of fruit. 

The oil palm grows well and produces a lot in regions where it is very hot, where the sun is very strong, and where it rains a great deal.

The fruits of the oil palm yield oil

10. The clusters consist of spikelets.

The spikelets contain the fruit. Before getting the oil out of the fruit, the fruit must be separated from the spikelets.

11. The fruits of the oil palm consist of the following parts: Pulp: the pulp is yellow; when the pulp is crushed it yields palm oil. Seed: inside the shell of the seed is the kernel; when the kernel is crushed, It yields palm kernel oil. The kernel also contains the germ.

Fruit of the oil palm

12. The fruits of all oil palms are not the same.

· They are not all of the same size.
· The pulp is not equally thick in all of them.
· The shell is not equally thick.
· Some kernels have no shell at all.

There are different varieties of oil palm:

· aura palms have kernels with a thick shell;
· pisifera palms have kernels with no shell;
· tenera palms have kernels with a thin shell.

There are different varieties of oil palm

13. When oil palms bear many and large fruit clusters, they yield a lot of oil.

But to get a lot of oil, each fruit must also contain a lot of pulp, a shell that is not very thick, and a big kernel.

Research stations have developed varieties of oil palm which produce many large clusters with fruits that have a lot of pulp, a thin shell and a big kernel.

These are selected oil palms.

In order to get a lot of oil, the female flowers of a aura palm are fertilized with the pollen from a pisifera palm.

Once they are fertilized, the female flowers turn into fruits.

These fruits are of the tenera variety.

The fruits of the tenera palm have a lot of pulp, a thin shell and a big kernel.

Why cultivate oil palms?

14. In traditional farming, nobody cultivates oil palms

People simply pick the clusters of fruit from the oil palms that grow in the forest.

But these oil palms produce little.

The oil is extracted by traditional methods, and a lot of oil is left in the pulp and the kernel.

But nowadays oil palms are grown on modem plantations.

These contain selected oil palms with big yields.

The clusters of fruit are sold to mills which extract all the oil from the pulp and the kernels.

These oil palm plantations bring in money

· for the growers who sell the fruit,
· for the workers who work in the mills,
· for the government which can sell the oil to foreign countries.

15. The growers can also earn money by raising beef cattle.

Beef cattle can be fed with the green fodder from the cover crop grown in the palm groves.

The grower can also feed his cattle with palm-kernel oil cake, that is, what is left over after extraction of the palm kernel oil.

Palm-kernel oil cake is a protein-rich food.

Where to cultivate oil palms

Oil palms are cultivated in the regions where they grow well and where there are oil mills.

To repary the grower the oil palm needs a region:

16. Where it is hot all the year round

The oil palm grows well where it is hot all the year round: between 25 and 28 degrees C.

If the temperature drops, the oil palm produces fewer leaves and is more often attacked by diseases. It therefore yields less.

A hot temperature enables the oil palm to make many leaves and to produce many clusters of fruit.

A lot of sunshine

Where there is a lot of sunshine, there will be strong photosynthesis, provided the oil palm is in soil which gives it water and mineral salts.

The leaves grow large, the fruit ripens well, and there is more oil in the fruits.

Plentiful rain

If it does not rain much, or if it does not rain for several months, the leaves do not grow well.

If there are few new leaves, there are few flowers and few clusters of fruit.

There is less yield.

17. Where the soil is flat, deep, permeable and rich.

The oil palm needs a flat soil. If the soil is not flat, transport is difficult and costs a lot. Erosion is severe; the water carries away the earth. The oil palm needs a deep soil. The roots of the oil palm cannot develop if they meet a hard layer. They cannot take up water and mineral salts that are deep down.

If the oil palm does not have enough water, yields are low. The oil palm needs a permeable soil. The oil palm does not grow well if water remains around its roots for too long. 

The oil palm needs a rich soil. In order to produce many large clusters of fruit, the oil palm needs a lot of mineral salts. If the soil is poor, mineral salts can be added by applying fertilizers. 

18. Where there are oil mills

With traditional methods, a lot of oil is left in the pulp and the kernels.

The machines of the oil mills extract all the oil contained in the pulp and the kernels.

Selected oil palms produce many clusters of fruit.

To get all the oil out of these clusters yourself, you would have to spend a lot of time.

Before planting selected oil palms, make sure you can sell the fruit clusters to a mill.

19. Where business companies or extension services can give the grower advice.

It takes much money and work to make an oil palm plantation.

The grower must use modern methods in order to pay for his expenses and earn money. He will need advice on:

· how to choose the site for his plantation
· how densely to plant it
· how to look after the plantation
· how to apply fertilizers
· how to protect the oil palms against disease

(introduction...)

20. It is difficult for a grower to make the seeds of oil palms germinate.

Growers buy young seedlings which already have four or five leaves. Seedlings can be bought from research stations or extension services.

The young seedlings are then put into a nursery.

The nursery is a small plot in which the young oil palms develop.

When the oil palms are big enough, they are planted out in the palm grove.

Nurseries cause a lot of expense and need much care.

It would be very expensive for one grower alone to make a nursery; it is better to make the nursery jointly with other growers.

It is very important to make a success of the nursery, so as to get fine young plants.

A seedling that has not grown well in the nursery will make a poor oil palm.

To have fine seedlings in the nursery you must:

· choose a good site and prepare it well,
· choose the finest seedlings,
· water them, protect them against erosion and weeds, give them fertilizers, protect them against insects and diseases.

How to make a nursery

21. Choosing the site

The soil should be fairly rich and well prepared.

It is best to clear a bit of forest for the nursery plot. If you clear a forest site for the nursery pull out all the trees and burn them. Burning all the wood helps to control certain diseases which might attack the roots of the oil palms, and it also makes the soil more fertile. Spread the ashes all over the plot.

If you put the nursery on a field which is already cultivated, pull up all the old crops: cocoa trees, coffee trees, oil palms.

Burn all the wood.

When the site is well cleared, it needs deep tilling. You should till 40 centimetres deep with a hoe or a tractor.

To improve the soil structure, you can then sow a green-manure crop, like Centrosema or Crotalaria. When these crops have grown, work them into the soil by tilling again.

Then apply fertilizers: 500 kilogrammes of dicalcium phosphate per hectare.

Layout of paths and nursery beds

22. Nursery bed is the name for the strip of soil where the oil palm seedlings are planted. It is best to make the nursery on flat ground. But, if the ground slopes, the beds must lie across the slope.

The beds should be 45 metres long and 3.5 metres wide. The soil of the beds should be well worked to make it quite flat. After that, apply a dressing of fertilizer. For instance, at La Me, Ivory Coast, 250 kilogrammes of 10: 10: 20 fertilizer are applied per hectare.

Apply a dressing of fertilizer

23. Making holes for seedlings and transplanting

To know where to make the holes for your seedlings, make a pattern.

At the places where you have put your little pegs, make a hole with a Richard plant setter.

Then put a seedling with its ball of earth into each hole.

You must give the seedlings a lot of water. But do not water when it is hot; it is best to water in the evening and the morning.

To protect the soil against erosion, mulch it.

Cover the ground with herbage or cluster residues. Leave a ring of 20 centimetres of unmulched ground around each seedling.

If you mulch with cluster residues, put them down only three months after transplanting, so that the insects do not attack the young leaves.

If you mulch with herbage, you must replace the herbage when it rots. Then hoe the soil.

If you cannot get enough water for the seedlings, transplant them into the nursery at the beginning of the rainy season.

At the end of the rainy season, the seedlings will be strong enough to get through the drought.

Pattern for nursery planting

Putting up shelters

24. In certain regions shelter has to be put up over the nursery.

This protects the young seedlings from a disease called blast.

These shelters are made with posts and bamboo sticks.

To make the shelters more solid, put two posts together.

The posts should be 2.5 metres high. The bamboo sticks are tied to the posts with lianas.

Finally, put palm fronds over the bamboo sticks.

In Benin, shade for the young oil palms is provided by planting castor-oil plants in the nursery.

It you make a shelter, you need not mulch, but you must hoe very often.

Get rid of all the weeds, and always keep the soil loose.

Three months after transplanting, if the seedlings have grown well, apply monthly to each plant 15 to 20 grammes of a mixture of ammonium sulfate and potassium chloride.

Spread the fertilizer mixture in a ring 10 centimetres from the seedling and water.

Hoe to work the fertilizer into the ground.

The seedlings stay in the nursery for about 1 year. You must plan, therefore, to make the nursery about 1 year before you want to plant your palm grove.

A nursery after transplating of seedings

Preparing the site

25. In big plantations the forest trees are pulled up with the help of big machines. But often the grower cannot use these machines.

Begin by marking out the boundaries of the plantation. Next, cut down as many trees as you can around the plantation and take all the trees away, so that the fire cannot burn down the whole forest. This is called making a firebreak. Then set fire to the plantation site.

When the fire is over, the soil is bare. You must protect the soil against the sun, for the sun burns the soil and destroys the humus.

At the beginning of the rainy season, sow a cover crop; a mixture of Pueraria javanica Centrosema pubescens, and Calopogonium muconoides. Sow 4 to 6 kilogrammes of seed per hectare.

Pegging the planting pattern

26. When the soil of the plantation has been well cleared by fire, peg out the places where you will plant your seedlings.

To be sure to plant at the right density, you must peg out carefully before planting.

Then you will be sure of having always the same distance between rows and in each row the same distance between oil palms.

To get a good yield, you must plant the oil palms at the right density.

If the oil palms are planted too close together, the roots get in each other's way, and the leaves do not have enough air and sun: the yield will be low.

If the oil palms are not planted close enough together, each separate tree produces much, but the roots do not use all the soil: the yield per hectare will be low.

27. How to peg out the planting pattern

Trace lines across the slope and put in your pegs in straight lines; leave 7.8 metres between rows and 9 metres between pegs.

In this way you can plant 143 oil palms per hectare; this is the best density.

Pull out tree stumps and remove fallen trees close to the pegs, because these stumps and trees would interfere with the oil palms.

Planting pattern for plantation

Planting out the oil palm seedlings

28. One month before planting, dig a hole at each place where you have put a peg. The hole should be 0.60 metre long and wide, and 0.80 metre deep. When you are digging the holes, cut any roots that you find in the soil. Do not mix the soil from above and the soil from below.

Planting out the oil palm seedlings

A few days later fill in the holes with the earth you have dug out. At the bottom of the hole, put the soil you have dug out from the top, and at the top put the soil you have dug out from below.

Fill the hole well, so that no saucer shape forms on top.

Bottorn soil now on top

29. Lifting the seedlings from the nursery The right time to plant is the beginning of the rainy season.

In this way the young plants can develop their root system before the dry season arrives.

Choose the biggest and the best-grown seedlings. Leave in the nursery any seedlings that are small or badly grown.

Cut away all the dry leaves and the tip of leaves that are too long. Put grease over the cut ends where you have removed leaf tips. Tie the leaves together.

30. Do not lift the seedlings long before you plant them. Lift and plant them in the course of a single day.

In order to keep a big ball of earth around the roots, lift and plant the palm oil seedlings with a plant setter.

31. If you use a Socfin plant setter, place the seedlings after lifting into a wooden box in order to carry them to the plantation.

32. It you use a Java plant setter, leave the seedling inside the plant setter when you carry it to the plantation. The seedling is tied into the plant setter.

Java plant setter

33. Make the holes for planting in the plantation, with the plant setter you use for lifting the seedlings from the nursery beds.

Do not make the holes several days before planting. If you make the holes too long before planting, the rain may wash earth from the sides into the hole, or the sun may dry out the earth on the sides.

The ball of earth around the roots must be level with the soil of the plantation.

The earth must not form a hollow around the crown. Fill in with earth the space between the sides of the hole and the root ball.

Remove with a little stick all the earth that has fallen on the leaves.

The crow

Putting wire netting around seedlings

34. Certain animals may eat the young oil palm seedlings. To protect the seedlings, surround them with wire netting.

Leave the wire netting in place for about 18 months. When you have put your wire netting in place, spread a mulch 20 centimetres thick around the seedlings. This mulch prevents the soil from drying out, and prevents weeds from growing.

Use dry herbage, and spread it 15 to 20 centimetres thick at a distance of 30 to 40 centimetres around the crown.

Wire netting in place

35. A few months after planting, apply fertilizers.

The right time to apply fertilizers is near the end of the rainy season.

The recommended dose of fertilizers for each plant is: 250 to 500 grammes of ammonium sulfate and 250 grammes of potassium chloride.

Spread the fertilizers in a ring underneath the longest leaves.

After you have spread the fertilizer, cover it with a little earth. If there is a mulch around the seedlings, remove the mulch before applying the fertilizer. Afterwards spread a fresh mulch of dry herbage.

Spread the fertilizers

(introduction...)

36. Cultivation

You must remove the weeds around the young oil palms. This work is done with a hoe or a machete.

During the first year, cultivate 6 times.

Remove all the weeds for 2 metres around each stem. During the first months, the weeds between rows have to be cut.

If you leave the weeds, the cover crop will not grow well.

37. Trimming the plants

You must always cut away the dry leaves of the oil palm.

In order to cut the leaves without damage to the oil palm, your tools must be well sharpened.

Cut the leaves very close to the stem, so that no other plants can grow in the axil of the cut-off leaves.

Remove from the trunk any plants (ferns) that may grow in the axils of the leaves. Remove also the male flowers.

38. Applying fertilizer

The oil palm needs a lot of mineral salts to form its leaves and fruit clusters. When the oil palm is young, it needs above all nitrogen.

When the oil palm has begun to produce, it needs a lot of potash. Potash increases the number of fruit clusters, and makes them bigger.

Nitrogen brought down by the rain

How much fertilizer to apply

Example: Ivory Coast
On plantations (per tree per year)

Age of oil palm	Savanna		Forest
	Grammes	Fertilizer	Grammes	Fertilizer
Year of planting	500	Ammonium sulfate	250	Ammonium sulfate
	500	Potassium chloride	250	Potassium chloride
1 year	750	Ammonium sulfate	500	Ammonium sulfate
	750	Potassium chloride	300	Potassium chloride
2 years	750	Ammonium sulfate	750
	750	Potassium chloride	to 1500	Potassium chloride
3 and 4 years and afterwards	1000		750
	to 1500	Potassium chloride	to 1500	Potassium chloride

On natural palm groves (per tree per year): 1000 grammes of potsassium chloride

Example: Benin

On plantations (per tree per year)

Age of oil palm	Ammonium sulfate	Potassium chloride
	Grammes	Grammes
Year of planting	250	200
1 year	350	200
2 years	500	500
3 years	600	750
4 years	600	1000

Protect against insects

39. Rhinoceros and augsome beetles Strategus beetle

To protect the young trees, put in the axil of the leaves a mixture of sawdust and BHC.

Insects

Palm weevil (Rhynchophora)

To avoid dangerous attacks, be very careful not to wound the trees. The insects may lay their eggs in the wounds of the oil palm.

There are other insects, but it is difficult for the grower to control them.

Palm weevil

Oil palms may also be attacked by rate and agoutis.

Rats and agoutis can eat young oil palms. Protect your young oil palms against agoutis by wire netting round each tree. As a protection against rats, you can place little bags with poisoned mane near the oil palms.

Diseases

Oil palms may be attacked by several diseases. If you see distorted leaves or leaves that break, ask for advice from the extension service.

Harvesting

40. Harvesting needs much time and much care, because only those fruit clusters which are cut d the right moment yield a lot of good-quality oil.

You must go through the plantation many times to pick the ripe clusters.

A cluster is ripe for harvesting when the fruits begin to turn red, and when 5 or 6 fruits drop to the ground. If you wait too long before harvesting the clusters, harvesting takes much more time, because you must pick up all the fruits that have dropped to the ground. The fruits will also yield less oil, and the oil will be of less good quality.

If you do not wait long enough before harvesting the clusters, the fruit will not be ripe enough.

It will be more difficult to separate the fruits from the clusters and the clusters will yield leas oil.

41. The clusters can be cut off with different tools

For oil palms 4 to 7 years old Cut the clusters with a chisel. Slip the chisel between the stem and the leaf; in this way you can cut off the cluster without cutting the leaf below it.

For oil palms 7 to 12 years old Cut the clusters with a machete. If the clusters are too high up, climb up the tree by putting your feet on the base of the leaves.

For oil palms older than 12 years Cut the clusters with a long-armed sickle.

Cut the clusters with a long-armed sickle.

Tree

If the clusters are too high up to be cut with the long-armed sickle, use bamboo ladders, or else climb up the tree with a belt; you can also wear spiked shoes.

Any clusters that have dropped to the ground should be collected in a basket.

Fruits that have come loose must also be picked up.

Suggested question paper

FILL IN THE MISSING WORDS:

The female flowers, after they are fertilized, turn into a
Inside the pulp of the oil palm fruit there is a
Before planting oil palms in a plantation, they are grown for about a year in a
The best density is oil palms per hectare
When the oil palm is young, it needs , especially in fertilizers

ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS:

Describe the fruit of an oil palm.
What varieties of oil palm are there?
What tools are used to harvest the fruit clusters?
What cover crops have you sown in your oil palm plantation ?
What insects attack the oil palm?
In what regions can oil palms be cultivated?
Why must fertilizers be applied to an oil palm plantation?
Why must the fruit clusters be harvested at the right moment?