Oil Palm Essay

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of Study Oil Palm tree (Elaeis guineensis) is a tropical plant from the West African tropical rainforest which commonly grown in warm climate region at altitudes of less than 1,600 feet above sea level. Oil palm can be grown on a wide range of soil types including coastal clay soils and inland soil with deep profile. The most popular edible oil in the world is produced from oil palm tree. There are many end product can be made from oil palm tree including supplements, cosmetics and furniture. In Malaysia, oil palm is planted all over the state. The largest oil palm planted by area is found in Sabah with 1,475,108 hectares (Malaysian Palm Oil Board, 2013). As the demand of oil palm product is increasing, the area of oil palm plantation is also increasing. This can be seen from the increasing area of oil palm plantation of about 222,810 hectares from the year 2012 to 2013. Malaysia currently exports their oil palm product to the country in Europe,

Nine quadrants are placed under the infected oil palm canopy and the other nine quadrants are randomly placed under the healthy oil palm canopy.

There are eight species of weeds is found under the canopy of healthy and infected oil palm. The weed species which are found in this oil palm farm is Ageratum conyzoides, Chromolaena odonata, Mikania micranta, Eleusine indica, Ischaemum muticum, Paspalum conjugatum, Cyperus aromaticus and Kyllinga brevifolia. There are three types of family and category of weeds which are founded in the quadrants. The family are Asteraceae, Poaceae and Cyperaceae. The category of weeds founded in this experiment site is broadleaf, grass and sedge.

Figure 4.2 Quadrant size 1m x 1m under oil palm