title: Closing oil palm yield gaps among Indonesian smallholders through industry schemes, pruning, weeding and improved seeds.
abstract: Oil palm production has led to large losses of valuable habitats for tropical biodiversity. Sparing of land for nature could in theory be attained if oil palm yields increased. The efficiency of oil palm smallholders is below its potential capacity, but the factors determining efficiency are poorly understood. We employed a two-stage data envelopment analysis approach to assess the influence of agronomic, supply chain and management factors on oil palm production efficiency in 190 smallholders in six villages in Indonesia. The results show that, on average, yield increases of 65% were possible and that fertilizer and herbicide use was excessive and inefficient. Adopting industry-supported scheme management practices, use of high-quality seeds and higher pruning and weeding rates were found to improve efficiency. Smallholder oil palm production intensification in Indonesia has the capacity to increase production by 26%, an equivalent of 1.75 million hectares of land.
authors.affiliation: The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, 10 Kyle Street, Riccarton, Christchurch 8011, New Zealand; Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, 14 Science Drive 4, Singapore117543, Republic of Singapore.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Soliman
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences , National University of Singapore , 14 Science Drive 4 , Singapore 117543 , Republic of Singapore.
authors.forename: F K S
authors.initials: FK
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.affiliation: Asian School of the Environment , Nanyang Technological University of Singapore , 50 Nanyang Avenue, Block N2-01C-37 , Singapore 639798 , Republic of Singapore.
authors.forename: J S H
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences , National University of Singapore , 14 Science Drive 4 , Singapore 117543 , Republic of Singapore.
authors.forename: L R
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-2894-1473
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Carrasco
keywords: Indonesia; biodiversity; efficiency analysis; land sparing; oil palm; smallholders