Agriculture and Environment: Palm Oil

Better Management Practices: Water Use & Nutrient Loading

Plantations should irrigate efficiently. In nurseries for palm oil seedlings, drip or perforated tube irrigation systems are preferable to sprinklers.

The use of water in processing mills should also be minimised, and every effort should be made to recycle an ever-increasing amount of the water that is used.

Harvesting freshwater
Operations should divert rainwater from the factory effluent stream to minimise water treatment requirements and the dilution of nutrient-laden wastewater that requires treatment. Ponds and water catchment areas can be constructed to collect rainwater and reduce the amount of water taken from natural bodies.

Re-using mill effluents
Mill effluents should be concentrated and reused. For every metric ton of oil produced 2.5 metric tons of effluent are generated, which have an average biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) of 25,000 parts per million. In Malaysia, the BOD level must be below 100 parts per million before effluent can be legally discharged into streams.

However, Golden Hope has found that returning the palm oil mill effluent to the plantations actually saves them in costs for fertilisers (nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium) while avoiding pollution and pollution taxes. The sludge cake produced when the effluent is allowed to settle can also be used to make biogas or livestock feed.

Biogas vs. Natural gas
An oil mill processing 60 metric tons of fresh fruit bunches per hour is capable of producing about 20,000 cubic meters of biogas per day, enough to generate about 1,000 kilowatts of electricity. Utilisation of biogas, however, is limited because of the low cost of natural gas in Malaysia at this time (Rahman bin Ramli 1996).

Malaysia's palm oil mil effluent standards can be strengthened over time only if specifc, measurable targets are given and then effective monitoring takes place to ensure that targets are met. What can also be more effective is not to be prescriptive, i.e., to set the standards and let the companies find the best way to achieve them.