Adopting the zero-burning technique in new clearings - Mentiga's experience

Ramli Abdul Majid, . Adopting the zero-burning technique in new clearings - Mentiga's experience. pp. 391-401. ISSN 0126-575X

Zero-burning in land clearing for oil palm newplantings was first tried out on our joint-venture project in Pulau Belitung Sumatera Selatan Indonesia in late 1995 on inland soils. The initital objectives were to preserve the existing soil fertility to maintain the soil structure to recycle nutrients through the decomposed materials to prepare the estates for eventual mechanisation and finally to be environmentally friendly. We had to-date mechanically cleared about 9500 ha and planted 7767 ha the first planting carried out in November 1996. With the exprience and confidence gained in Pulau Belitung we then embarked on another project on peat soils in Malaysia over an area of 4000 ha. Ladang Endau Rompin (LER) has also been designed for mechanisation and we went a step further to incorporate water and land transportation systems. The initial problems were numerous both in Indonesia and Malaysia among which were the accepatance of the technique lack of experience both by the Management and Contractors lack of suitable heavy equipment particularly in Indonesia very low productivity of the operators and resistance to change. Most of the above problems had been overcome through constant work evaluation discussions with all the parties involved and importantly perseverance. Over the last two years we had perfected our techniques to allow mechanisation even in the initial stages and there is no turning back. We had proven our critics wrong.

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Abstract

Zero-burning in land clearing for oil palm newplantings was first tried out on our joint-venture project in Pulau Belitung Sumatera Selatan Indonesia in late 1995 on inland soils. The initital objectives were to preserve the existing soil fertility to maintain the soil structure to recycle nutrients through the decomposed materials to prepare the estates for eventual mechanisation and finally to be environmentally friendly. We had to-date mechanically cleared about 9500 ha and planted 7767 ha the first planting carried out in November 1996. With the exprience and confidence gained in Pulau Belitung we then embarked on another project on peat soils in Malaysia over an area of 4000 ha. Ladang Endau Rompin (LER) has also been designed for mechanisation and we went a step further to incorporate water and land transportation systems. The initial problems were numerous both in Indonesia and Malaysia among which were the accepatance of the technique lack of experience both by the Management and Contractors lack of suitable heavy equipment particularly in Indonesia very low productivity of the operators and resistance to change. Most of the above problems had been overcome through constant work evaluation discussions with all the parties involved and importantly perseverance. Over the last two years we had perfected our techniques to allow mechanisation even in the initial stages and there is no turning back. We had proven our critics wrong.

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Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Summary (En)
AGROVOC Term:	VEGETATION
AGROVOC Term:	OIL PALMS
AGROVOC Term:	LAND CLEARING
AGROVOC Term:	FELLING
AGROVOC Term:	STAKING
AGROVOC Term:	PLANTING
AGROVOC Term:	SOIL FERTILITY
AGROVOC Term:	SOIL STRUCTURE
AGROVOC Term:	SOIL WATER CONTENT
AGROVOC Term:	MALAYSIA
Depositing User:	Ms. Norfaezah Khomsan
Last Modified:	24 Apr 2025 05:52
URI:	http://webagris.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/17823

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