Located in the tropical belt, Malaysia is blessed with a healthy supply of sunlight and rainfall. Such conditions create an ideal environment for tropical crops such as oil palms and rubber trees, which has grown to become staple crops for the Malaysian agricultural industry.

Taking into account the economic importance of such crops to the country’s economy, many local companies are (re)investing heavily in agribusiness in an effort to further facilitate its growth and Golden Hope Plantations Berhad is no different. “We try our best to achieve sustainable crop development to meet present demands with minimal damage to the surrounding environment. There has been much research effort directed at ways to improve the effectiveness of this balance between harnessing nature’s products, while preserving the natural ecosystem,” says the Chief Research Executive Officer of Golden Hope, Dr Aziah Mohd Yusof.

Palm products are the core contributor in Golden Hope’s agribusiness operation. Approximately 90% of a total of 132,118 hectares of its land is cultivated with oil palm.
“The key obstacle to cultivating oil palms is the presence of pests in the estate,” says Dr Aziah. “Occurrence of these pests in the estate will suppress the growth of the oil palms and eventually cause economic injury. To avoid such losses, we employ a very effective biological control method that also requires no pesticides usage to control the number of pests present in the estate”.

Golden Hope studied the roles of some important insects in a typical oil palm estate, establishing the relevant predator-and-prey relationships. “Take for instance, bagworms and nettle caterpillars (Figure 1). These are serious defoliating pests of oil palm. They can devastate large areas of oil palm if they are not detected or if the problem is not treated early. When the threshold level of pest population is exceeded in a given estate, methods of direct and indirect biological control will be utilized,” explains Dr Aziah.

Figure 1: Bagworms and nettle caterpillars are serious defoliating pests of oil palm.

The first method would be direct biocontrol, which involves the use of predator to control the population of prey in a given estate. The predator will usually be mass bred and released into the fields to control its prey when it is necessary. For example, pentatomid bugs such as Cantheconidea furcellata and Plantynopus melacanthus (Figure 2) will be freed to control the population of its prey, nettle caterpillars in this case, in the fields when the population of nettle caterpillars exceeded the level where they can have the potential to devastate the entire estate.

Figure 2: The predatory bug Platynopus melacanthus feeding on a nettle caterpillar.

Alternatively, indirect biocontrol can be employed by the cultivation of plants (Figure 3) in and around infested fields. “These plants encourage populations of predators by providing them with nectar and shelter. In this case, the growth of predators of bagworms and nettle caterpillars will be boosted by these beneficial plants. The increased populations of natural enemies would in turn exert biocontrol on the pests,” explains Dr Aziah.

Figure 3: Beneficial plants encourage biocontrol of oil palm leaf pests by providing food and shelter for natural enemies of the pests.

Biocontrol is one of the more successful natural methods used by Golden Hope to manage the pest problem. Besides this, Golden Hope has also adopted and implemented a technique for replanting in 1989. This technique is called the zero burning replanting technique where oil palm trees are felled, shredded, stacked and left to be decomposed in situ (Figure 4). The oil palm trees will be cut down for replanting after approximately 35 years of cultivation and continual harvesting. At this age, the oil palm would have attained a reduced yield for palm oil production, and the height of the trees will be too tall and therefore restrict the process of reaping.

Figure 4: Shredding of old oil palm stand during zero burning replanting of the field.

“In the olden days, these trees will be felled and burned. This clean-clearing method will reduce the soil fertility and also cause air pollution,” comments Dr Aziah. “Instead of burning the old strands, we make use of the microorganisms in the fields”.

The primary role of microorganisms in this relationship is to decompose the organic matters present. In the process of composting, microorganisms have the ability to break down organic matter and produce by-products such as water, heat, humus, as well as relatively stable organic end product over a period of time. Dr Aziah explains that “this technique was implemented to allow all plant tissues to be recycled and invariably help to restore and improve soil fertility. As an added incentive, the usage of inorganic fertilizers can be reduced since composting oil palm residue will recycle vital nutrients back to the soil”.

Composting and nutrient recycling is nothing new. But like the pest control programs detailed earlier, what is interesting is the way in which companies like Golden Hope are able to harness the power of nature to assist in its commercial operations. Effective and efficient use of nature in these circumstances requires a thorough understanding of the many factors involved, not least of which is the results of introducing a predator species into the environment. The company’s track record suggests that they have managed to develop this understanding and is reaping the rewards of its relationship with nature. In this day and age where high technology solutions are being championed, nature’s solution can still be the best.