The Oil Palm, its Culture, Manuring and Utilisation
Among the industrial plants cultivated worldwide, oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) has a prominent part of the volume of international trade, due to a ceaselessly growing demand for palm oil in local and international markets. With more than 8 million of cultivated hectares in the world, oil palm is after soybean, the second global source of vegetable oil (Hartley, 1988). The oil palm produces two types of vegetable oil – crude palm oil from the fruit mesocarp and palm kernel oil from the seed. There are three basic varieties of oil palm – the Dura type, Pisifera and Tenera type. Dura is characterized by thin mesocarp and thick endocarp (shell) with generally large kernels. Pisifera type possesses thick mesocarp (with very little oil content) and no endocarp (shell-less) with small kernel. The Tenera type is a crossbreed between the large seeded Dura type and the seedless Pisifera type. Tenera has a thick fibrous oil-rich mesocarp and a thin endocarp with moderate size kernel. It is a dual purpose palm for the production of palm oil and Kernel. In this chapter, the germination procedures for oil palm seeds were discussed. Also discussed are the basic nursery and field establishment and maintenance practices.
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