Sustainability of African Oil Palm Agriculture in a Changing Climatic Environment

Population and Demand for Palm Oil

Continents and world populations have been increasing since 2001, the starting point considered in this paper. The world population has grown from 6.195 billion in 2001 to 7.433 billion in 2016, representing a 20% increase over 16 years corresponding to 1.22% increase annually. In the same period, the African population reached 1.215 billion after a net increase of 45% over these 16 years at a rate of 2.5% yearly. Asia’s populations recorded a 18% increase from 3.670 billion in 2001 to 4.331 in 2016, accounting for 58.4% of the world population with a mean annual increase of 1.11% (Figure 1).

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One of the factors that will contribute to sustainable increment of African population is the considerable control of prevailing and endemic diseases. In Africa, better preventive measures are being developed to limit the incidence of HIV and malaria, intended to lead to a long-lasting augmentation of the continent’s population.

In the case of HIV, UNAIDS [6] has evaluated world prevalence at 0.8% among adults. Since the start of the epidemics, 78 million people have been infected with HIV and 38 million died of AIDS-related disease including 1 million people in 2016. A total of 25 million cases were detected in Africa, including 19.4 million in East and Southern Africa. New infections among adults are estimated to have declined by 11% and 16% for the general population between 2010 and 2016 whereas there was only 8% decline between 2010 and 2015. Furthermore, new HIV infections among children globally have halved, from 300,000 in 2010 to 160,000 in 2016. Considerable efforts are being made in recent years to provide HIV treatment, particularly in resource-poor countries. In 2016, for the first time, more than half of the people living with HIV (53%) got access to life-saving treatment (Table 1). In 2016, 76% of all pregnant women living with HIV accessed treatment to prevent HIV transmission to their babies; this was up from 47% in 2010. Most countries are generally providing a strong domestic investment, increasing on average 11% from 2006 to 2016. Most importantly, the United Nations general assembly maintains its suggested commitment that 23.9 billion USD will be required for the response to the epidemic in 2020.

There is also an increased control of malaria mortality. In 2015, roughly 212 million malaria cases and an estimated 429,000 malaria deaths were recorded. Increased prevention and control measures have led to a 29% reduction in mortality rates globally since 2010. According to the WHO [7], the African region carries a disproportionately high share of the global malaria burden. In 2016, the region was home to 90% of malaria cases and 91% of malaria deaths. Children under 5 years are most susceptible to infection and illness, and 70% of all malaria deaths occur in this age group. The number of under-5 malaria deaths has declined from 440,000 in 2010 to 285,000 in 2016. Preventive control includes (i) insecticide-treated mosquito nets, (ii) indoor residual spraying, (iii) vaccines (Mosquirix) against malaria in young children, and (iv) in Africa, preventive medicine for women during pregnancy. The total funding for malaria control and elimination reached an estimated 2.7 billion USD in 2016. Contributions from governments of countries where malaria is endemic amounted to 800 million USD, representing 13% of the funding. WHO’s targets for 2030 are to (a) reduce malaria case incidence by at least 90%, (b) reduce malaria mortality by at least 90%, (c) eliminate malaria in at least 35 countries of the 91 where malaria is endemic, and (d) prevent resurgence of malaria in all countries that are malaria-free.

With a 1.22% annual increase of world population and a 2.5% in African and an individual consumption of oils and fats averaging 24 kg per year, it can be projected that world and Africa demands in 2018 for oils and fats for food uses will be 184 million and 31 million tons, respectively.

Uses of Palm Oil and Demand for the Commodity

The demand for palm oil is a function of the continuously ascending trend of food and non-food uses of the commodity. This section does not intend to provide a complete list of uses made of palm oil and palm oil products. Instead, it is limited to some main features believed to be key drivers of the sustainability of the demand for palm oil that are illustrative of the diversity of its uses.

Friends of the Earth [8] has reported, after an assessment of worldwide palm oil consumption by use, that 71% of palm oil goes to foods (e.g. margarine, processed foods, chocolate), 24% to consumer products (e.g. cosmetics, detergents, candles), and 5% to energy (electricity, heating, fuels.). The ONG provides an impressive list of brand owners and palm oil-containing products (Table 2). In the United States, Balmford, et al. [9] noted that around 50% of the goods used every day contain palm oil. They also remarked that palm oil is often hidden behind other ingredient names or labeled generically as “vegetable oil”. In 2015, the MPOC (Malaysian Palm Oil Council) noticed that about 50% of all products found on supermarket shelves in the EU contain is essentially consumed in the form of red palm oil (Figure 2).

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Preparation of voandzou (Bambara nuts) cake.

Donuts for breakfast.

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The largest consumers are both developed countries and highly populated countries (or regions) as well. China, Indonesia, India, and the European Union each imports between 10 and 15% of world production. Imports of palm oil have been maintained or have been ascending as illustrated by 2011-2016’s data from countries ranked among the largest importers (Figure 3).

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Crude palm oil contains minor natural components used as phytonutrients including tocopherols (vitamin E), tocotrienols, carotenoids, polyphenols, all extracts now well accepted worldwide for their health benefits Carbonneau [1], Monde, et al. [2] including the prevention of breast cancer [10] (Figure 4). Since palm oil is semi- solid at ambient temperature, melting at about 35°C, and needs no dehydrogenation, a more desirable solid fat content can be obtained by blending liquid vegetable oils with palm oil. This property of palm oil has recently increased its consumption in the United States to over one million tonnes [11]. Furthermore, there are technologies in Malaysia to produce oil palm products such as wood for furniture and plywood for block board and roof tiles from biomass that had been left to rot in the past [10] (Figures 5-7).

Source: Wahid [10] Figure 4: Application of tocotrienols for breast cancer control.

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Source: Wahid [10]

In Africa, other oil palm products of paramount importance for locals just after palm oil include palm wine (Figure 8). Minor but widespread uses are for leaflet nerve brooms, band brooms, poultry nets, palm cabbage, leaflets for thatching, and the petioles and rachis for making baskets and ropes Bakoumé [12], to name a few.

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Palm wine from male inflorescence of standing tree Palm oil wine from a felled oil palm tree Figure 8: Palm wine production techniques.

Review of Sound Mitigation Measures

In 2016, total area planted in oil palm was 11.8 million ha in Indonesia Investments [17] and 5.74 million ha in Malaysia MPOB [18], making 16.54 million ha in total for the two world’s largest palm oil producers in East Asia. Planted oil palm area in the 23 African palm oil-producing countries was only 1.764 million ha, showing that African forest areas are only slightly used to plant oil palm. This situation probably explains the fact that all African countries including palm oil-producing countries are net importers of palm oil with the exception of Cote d’Ivoire.

In Africa, NGOs and civil society’s claim that oil palm agriculture leads to deforestation which impacts on biodiversity should be merely considered as an appeal to developers’ consciousness on the future shortcomings of their business. Proforest’s David Hoyle estimates in 2016 that “up to 22 million hectares of land in West and Central Africa could be converted to oil palm plantations over the next five years” were too exaggerated. As of today (September 2018), area in Africa planted in oil palm is still less than 2 million hectares. Africa is currently falling victim to climate change, whose causes are exogenous to the continent. It should be understood by NGOs as African countries’ invited guests that economic and social development plans in Africa must give priority to agriculture. NGOs and civil society should focus on raising rural communities out of poverty and contribute to the socio-economic development of developing countries.

Bakoumé [15] has proposed that environmental and other social challenges would be adequately faced via collaboration between oil palm developers and NGOs, with NGOs helping to identify the high conservation value (HCV) forest areas and high carbon stock forests to preserve. Furthermore, the Malaysian Palm Oil Council [11] has recognised that deforestation is a challenge anywhere in the world when it is unplanned and unmanaged. Most importantly, the African oil palm sector needs to communicate to promote the positive attributes of palm oil, to promote the best agricultural practices, and to defend the sector.

Attempts of NGOs to take advantage of countries’ trust to carry out their anti-oil palm campaign will provoke strong reactions from African governments.

I have provided concise proposals on ways and means for a sustainable development of the African oil palm sector in papers published recently Bakoumé [15]; Bakoumé, et al. [16] as a contribution to the presentation of the oil palm in the Third World coordinated by the Incorporated Society of Planters (ISP). Most of the proposed actions are here tabulated to ease their readability and understanding (Table 4).

High-Yield for Oil Palm Business Sustainability, Reduced Deforestation, and Biodiversity Conservation

Very marked increase in demand for palm oil will have profound consequences for the future of global diversity. In terms of supply, rising high yields of plantations will potentially restrict humanity’s impacts on biodiversity since low-yield systems occupy more land for the same level of production. The ultimate approach that will ineluctably and rapidly lead to sustainability of oil palm agriculture is higher yield, i.e. high production per unit area. Using improved high-yielding tenera hybrid palms as planting material along with technical assistance for high productivity and profitability minimises the need to expand planted areas [16]. In 2016, the 9 African palm oil- producing countries recorded 2.434 million tonnes from 1.198 million hectares for an average yield of 2.031 t/ha. Only 609 000 ha were needed for the same palm oil production at 4 t/ha.

In a study of farming systems that could secure sustainable production of palm oil carried out by the University of Cambridge, Blamford, et al. [9] found that agriculture that appears to be more eco-friendly but uses more land may actually have greater environmental costs per unit of food than high-yielding farming that uses less land. Results suggested that high-yield farming could be harnessed to meet the growing demand for food without destroying more of the natural world. For the researchers of the University of Cambridge [19] more intensive agriculture might be the least bad option for feeding world while saving its species, provided the use of such land-efficient systems actually prevents further conversion of wilderness to farmland.

Impacts on the wild oil palm population would be greatly reduced through boosting yields on existing farmlands so as to spare remaining natural habitats. Blamford, et al. [9] added that high-yield farming raises other concerns because expressed per unit area it can generate high levels of externalities such as greenhouse gas emissions, nutrient losses, soil erosion, ammonia emissions, dispersal of harmful pesticides and fresh water depletion. They noted, however, that such metrics underestimate the overall impacts of low-yield systems. Corley & Palat [20, 21, 22] concluded that to ensure economic and environmental sustainability, yield must be maximised over the entire life of an oil palm planting.

There is mounting evidence that the best way to meet rising demand for palm oil while conserving biodiversity is to wring as much palm oil as sustainably possible from the land planted, so that more natural habitats can be “spared the plough”. The theoretical yield of palm oil is 18 t/ha. The current yields vary between 5 and 8.5 t/ha representing 28 to 47% of the crop potential. This information indicates that there are large possibilities for further improvement of palm oil yield.

4. Main nursery polybag flat dimensions: 40 cm wide, 45 cm deep 5. Use vigorous and healthy seedlings 6. Practice “Zero compromise” or “Zero tolerance” during the culling of abnormal seedlings

1. Provides improved accessibility of plots and of individual oil palm trees 2. Eases supplying of fertilizers to the planted field as well as collection and transportation of FFB from the field Land preparation 1. Zero burning to allow young palms to benefit from the decomposing organic materials Planting

1. Planting density must be a function of the terrain
2. Adopt optimum planting density according to terrain for high yield
3. New planting points should be away from old planting points.
4. Application of root-growth promoting fertilizers during planting proper

1. Performed regularly to prevent competition of young oil palms with weeds
2. Adoption of drought mitigation measures
3. Ensuring planting density maintenance with normal palms not later than 3 years after field planting
4. Reduce competition of palms with undesired vegetation
5. Good canopy management given the positive correlation between canopy and yield