Almost the entire economy of countries such as Malaysia depends of palm oil exportation. Making the country one of the biggest player in the palm oil industry, account for the estimated 5% of global productions. Malaysia is currently producing more than 20 million tonnes of palm oil and holds the second largest palm oil producer position in the world.
One funny truth is that Malaysia we are talking about actually got their palm fruit from Nigeria who used to be the origin of this product and one of the biggest producer in the past. What really happened to this sector of viable agriculture in Nigeria? If the wealth of entire nation could depend on this product, does that not tell you the amount of revenue in palm oil plantation business?
Palm oil is the red oil extract from the oil palm fruit 'Elaeis guineensis' while palm kernel oil is also derived from the seed of the same oil palm fruit. Palm oil is the best cooking oil in the world due to it's low content of cholesterol. It a healthy cooking oil, more health than the vegetable oil in the market.
Palm oil is sold both in the local and international markets. If you have good quantity of palm oil, selling it is never a problem because it is a product that always in high demand. A good palm oil plantation is capable of producing thousands of tonnes of palm oil in a year that can be sold for million of naira in the local market or exported to oversea and sell for foreign currency.
Why are Nigerian farmer shying away from this goldmine? The main reason most Nigerians farmers are not paying attention to oil palm plantation is because they think that palm tree take so many years to mature to the point of production, therefore they are not ready to wait. That is total ignorance, there are varieties of palm tree that starts producing just two years after planting.
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High Yield Palm Oil Tree |
This is how to proceed with setting up your oil palm plantation.
Look for suitable land - Almost all lands in Nigeria, especially East and West is suitable for palm tree survival and proper yield. Get a good quantity of land in acres in a good location. Good location I mean land in a place that is motorable, at least tractors and lorries would be able to get in there.
If you are not sure of the quality of the land soil, whether it is suitable for palm tree plantation or not, you can take the sample to Nigerian Institute for Oil Palm Research (NIFOR) they will be able to analyze and make recommendation. You can get much more additional information from them as regard your venture and the merits.
After buying the land, you prepare it in good condition - I recommend that you use Tractor Soil Pulverizers to loosen the soil, pulverize, and level packed or encrusted soils, removing hard roots in preparation for palm seeding, making them well suited for planting.
But before preparing the land, you have to get the palm nursery ready. You have two options:
Germinate your own seed - Get the high yield seed from the Nigerian Institute for Oil Palm Research or any other places you can find it and make it germinate. If you do not take care of the seeds, it will take them several years to germinate. To make it germinate fast, the seeds are kept in a very hot room. This makes the seeds to germinate in about 90 to 100 days.
When the seeds are germinated, you transfer them into small plastic container with black loam manured oil. They will grow new leaf every month. The young seedlings will stays in the container for 4 to 5 months. When the seedling begins to bring out new left with two points (bifid leaf) you start transplanting the seedling to the nursery.
The seedlings will stay in the nursery for 1 year. By that time, they will have about 15 green leaves, then you finally transplant them into your prepared farm land. The overall period it will take before the seedlings are transplanted into the farm 15 to 17 months old.
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| Oil Palm Seedling |
Or you can just go to the agriculture institute to buy already prepared seedling at about N120 per seedling. If you are planting 10,000 palms, you will have to have 120 x 10,000 = N1.2 Million. So, germinating your own seedling is less costly but takes some times.
Planting your Seedlings - You palm need to be planted preferably at the rainy season when it will have enough water in the soil for sustaining the young palm. Plant with proper spacing, taking into cognizance grown period when the palm frond will be spread all over the place.
My experience with oil palm plantation. I started my own oil palm nursery in early 2011 with 1575 seeds, bought from NIFOR at N15,000 per pack, each pack had 525 seeds. I grew the nursery for 14 months. by June 2012 I cleared land for planting. pegging was carried out, then digging and planting. 1050 trees were planted, it took me almost 4 weeks with 10 men to carry out the all work on a 7 hectare farm.
Spacing for my palms was 7[10] meters by 7[10] meters in a triangle. First weeding and fertilizer application was carried out after 3 months. NPK Fertilizer was applied to each palm tree. Second weeding was done 3 months latter, towards the end of the raining season. By may this year, I had carried out first weeding and fertilizer application 1 bought 3 bags of NPK Fertilizers at N6,800 per bag (open market price, may 2013) most of the labor was done by myself with the help of some relative. The land used is inherited land. the money I have spend thus far is around N250,000. - Felixo1, Nairaland forum.
It is important to plant at the right density, the spacing in the above quotation is considered low density and low density oil palm doesn't produce well. Therefore, to be sure of the right density before planting, you must peg out the area properly. The distance must be the same between rows and in each row should also be the same distance between oil palms.
If the oil palms are planted too close together, the roots get in each others 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.The proper pegging measurement - Trace lines across the slope and put in your pegs in straight lines; leave 7.8 meters 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.
Having done your part of setting up your oil palm plantation in Nigeria, the next is to maintain it and wait for your yield. Palm tree starts yielding fruits just two years after planting. From that moment onwards, you will be harvesting cash all year round for generations.
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Thanks for the write up sir. I have three questions, which r as follows;
ReplyDelete1. The rainy season here in the north has already gone far, is it still advisable to go ahead with the plantation? Also, can one do the planting outside the rainy season?
2. By an average projection, how many tones of oil-palm fruit would be harvested from 10,000 oil-palm tree?
3. How viable is the market for the fruits?
Thank you very much in anticipation of your favourable response.
Now is the perfect time to start planting, when the rain is not too much. Palm does well at the nursery stage when the rain is moderate or towards the end of raining season.
ReplyDeleteI think the estimate of what do expect in your production s already in the article.
Thanks for the feedback sir. I did a little market survey and realised that the oil-palm fruits has little or no viable market here in the north, THE OIL ITSELF IS WHAT IS IN HIGH DEMAND.
ReplyDelete1.How about installing a small scale processing facility alongside the plantation so as to process the oil-palm, and the oil from the nuts?
2. If no.1 is a good idea, is the processing facility available here in Nigeria? And what is the cost for the facilities?
Sorry for bordering you with loads of questions, its part of me. My fiance also do complain that I ask toooo much questions.
Thank you very much once again, and remain blessed.
Are you cultivating oil palm to sell the fruit? You should be surveying about the palm oil and palm kernel oil, not the palm fruit.
DeleteAbout the processing facility and the cost of setting it up,pay and lets carry out the specific research for you+
Ok sir. Drop your office address/contact. Will travel to lagos and meet you one on one as soon as I am ready. Thanks once again.
DeleteResearch guys. The devil is always in the detail. Do delicate research about the natural condition of the area. It includes rain precipitation, sun light, water deficit, temperature, humidity, absence of rain in a year, soil characteristic, topography, organic/peat quality, soil drainage, top soil thickness, etc. Even Okomu and Presco share the same state but their soil quality is different and water deficit is different, at the end they get different result. You only will make USD 400 profit from one hectare of oil palm plantation in A YEAR if you don't process it into CPO/red oil. It bases on report regarding small scale oil palm grower in Indonesia and Malaysia. Bad news is northern part of Nigeria is not suitable to grow oil palm, except if you can live with very low yield.
ReplyDeleteThere is huge difference between paper theory and practical experience. In most cases, paper theory would want you to believe that nothing works, while practical experience tells you that something works.
DeleteWhile it is very important to do soil analysis and carry out detailed research about the area you wants to start your palm plantation, I must tell you that no soil on earth contains 90% requirements. Palm can do and indeed does very well in Nigeria without all these gigantic theories.
I was born and brought up in a community that does palm plantation as a matter of custom. We plant palms indiscriminately and they still grow and does well.
$400 annual profit from one acre is like prophecy of doom. My family palm plantation is just about one acre of ordinary traditional red oil palm and it used to produce red oil worth of N250,000 annually. Imagine what it would be if those palms where to be the improve high yield variety?
Forget those report that are most times carried out in an AC office without recourse to what is obtainable in reality. The report is said to be BASED on Indonesia and Malaysia small scale palm growers, the same countries whose entire economy is powered by Palm! If palm is such delicate, I don't think even families in those countries would depend on it let alone the whole economy? Reports sometimes are poisonous!!
My brother in Malaysia one and half acre of land palm fruits yield about 3000 $ a month I know about this cause of my Chinese friends that's what they do but their seeds is a very high breed as one tree can produce upto 12- 20 bunches of palm fruits in a month. And they don't wait until it is ripped before cutting it off the tree another thing is that Malaysia don't separate red oil and kernels they process unripe fruit to get cooking oil .
DeleteWhat is the yield of Fresh Fruit Bunch you can get from one hectare (not acre) in a year? How much is per ton FFB? How much is cost of fertilizer? How about labour cost to apply fertilizer, weeding, harvesting? For good first three year you will not harvest anything but incurring cost to maintain immature plant. Do the math bro. USD 400 is very realistic number for planning an investment, because you can't say the whole 25 years you are going to get maximum yield. Matter a fact peak period of oil palm is only 5-6 years and the rest only give maximum 80-90% yield. First harvest in the forth year only going to give 30% yield, fifth year increase to 50-60%, and continue to increase gradually till it reaches its peak period then start declining again. Research is different from desk study that you mentioned in office with AC. Research is done with real people, real plantation, real work. It is good for being optimistic but it is dangerous for being blinded by optimism. That is why it is important to do delicate research before starting your plantation.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the intelligent comment. Maybe you can write full article on some of the research process let's publish here?
DeleteI will bro. I would be happy to do it because this page is a positive endeavor to promote entrepreneurship to Nigerians. Sharing positiveness is much better for us to create optimism than whining about lack of facilities and poor opportunities.
ReplyDeleteHello Darlinton,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your write up. I intend to start an Oil Palm plantation soon. Please, what is the name of the variety of palm tree that starts producing after two years of planting? Where can one get this variety that you have spoken about?
Regards.
hybrid DxP, Tenera, Dura, etc... You'll get them at the Nigerian Institute for Oil Palm Research (NIFOR)
DeleteHello Mr Darlinton, Thanks for your wite-up, very encouraging. regrds
ReplyDeleteBro, please what is the cost of the seed in Nifor, i mean the one that has already germinated.After buying these seed what else will i be needing before they are moved to the farm
ReplyDeleteI don't like the idea of jumping into comment to ask questions without first reading the article properly. I mentioned in the article that a palm seedling cost N120 each from NIFOR, why not go down to NIFOR and inquire from them the cost per seedling.
DeleteSome one got a pack at N15,000 per pack, each pack had 525 seeds. All these info are in the article.
Thanks for the enlightenment have a farm which contain 400 trees of tenera planted in 2011,when am l expecting the harvest and where can l get the machine for processing the oil . thanks.Eld felix
ReplyDeletepleas sir, to be specific, how many stand of parm tree can i plant in a plot of land (a plot is 60ft by 120ft
ReplyDeleteFaleye, what you are asking me is already explained on the article. Read it again and follow the suggested measurements.
Deletehello Mr D, pls can u assist me wt a rough yield i can get per tree or acre of land. sorry 4 d inconvinience.
ReplyDeleteMuyiwa.
Such estimate is difficult because a lot of things are derived from palm tree. Palm oil, Palm kernel, Brooms, even palm wine :D and so on. So, which one do you want the estimate?
DeleteI am interested in palm oil and the kernnel.
ReplyDeletemuyiwa
Again Darlington with all due respect how many palm tree fruit can be planted in a one(1) acre Land. Pls understand most of us here can't do the rough Maths that's why am humbly asking.
ReplyDeleteThanks
Dear Mr. Darlington, please I would like to know the particular type of npk fertilizer you said you bought (15-15-15 or others) and at what rate it was applied on the field. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteDear M Darlington
ReplyDeletethank you very much for the effort you are putting in order to promote entrepreneurship in Nigeria..but still have some series of questions to ask and the question is as fellows
(1)...i want to go into palm oil plantation in my state(ebonyi) but i am not in the country presently and really wanna settle down as an agriculturist pls dose your company have a body that can be employed to take care of the seeds till it grows and start germinating? if yes please give me your contact so as to discus with you
Send me a friend request on Facebook
DeleteHi everyone - I am the manager of a middle size oil palm plantation - around 800 trees but to be extended to 1600 next year. If any reader wish to ask me anything or pick my brains on the oil palm subject please go ahead. We are very much into organic fertilization. This benefits the soil in the long term and cuts costs.
ReplyDeleteAlan you need to share your contact details if u want people to reach you
DeleteAlan you need to share your contact details if u want to be reached
DeleteThis is great.I am also thinking of going into Palm Oil plantation sometime next year.But I know little or nothing about Palm oil.This write-up has answered a lot of questions I used to be afraid of. I am thinking at setting it up in Ede, Osun State.My main objective is exporting the matured fruit,though has to start with local
ReplyDeleteThanks for the great article.I will like to know more about the species of oil palm that mature in 2 years.
ReplyDeleteI AM INTERESTED IN OIL PALM PLANTATION. WHAT IS YOUR CONTACT
ReplyDeleteDarlinton O, You have rally done well in enlightening us in the area of oil palm plantation. I in particular really benefited a lot.
ReplyDeleteThanks
What is the value of palm oil one can get from 1 hectare of oil palm annually.
ReplyDeleteHello Darlington, I stumbled on your write up and found it quite educating. Please can you aid me in locating any person who is well experienced in handling the nurseries? Thanks
ReplyDeleteMr. D, any idea on where someone can acquire 10hecters of land for palm oil plantation business and at what cost.
ReplyDelete