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Palm oil is a commodity that generally evokes images of mass deforestation, human-rights violations and dying orangutans. In Indonesia and Malaysia, where some 85% of the world's palm oil is produced, more than 16 million hectares of land — rainforest, peat bogs and old rubber plantations — have been taken over by oil palm, and there is no sign of the industry slowing down.
Despite its bad reputation, oil palm is the most productive oil crop in the world. Oilseed rape (canola) currently produces only about one-sixth of the oil per hectare — soya bean only one-tenth. But oil-palm plantations still aren't getting as much as they could out of their plants.
The main problem is that genetic and epigenetic variables can cause some palms to underproduce. And because oil palms mature slowly, growers typically don't know for three to four years whether the trees they plant will turn out to be star performers or worthless wood.
That's where Orion comes in. When the leaf punches sent out around southeast Asia return, Orion technicians process the disc of greenery within and can send growers a report on the quality of their young plants. Lakey predicts that, if adopted on a large scale, the test could raise industry revenue by about US$4 billion per year. And, importantly, it could do so without expanding plantations. "We can get more oil for an equivalent area of land — this could help take the pressure off deforestation," Lakey says.
The world's most hated crop is not kale?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Dunbal on Thursday March 16 2017, @03:27PM (3 children)
Cos I swear to you if I didn't cut down the forest to plant palm trees for oil, I wouldn't have cut down the forest for cattle, sugar cane, coffee, (insert crop here)... Blame palm oil.
Anyway I planted a forest. And just to prove that you can NEVER please eco - types, apparently I'm a bad person because the 600+ hectares of teak I planted are a "monoculture". So it doesn't fucking count.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 16 2017, @06:42PM (2 children)
if you were doing it to restore the land back to nature it is kind of funny that you planted all the same species.
(Score: 2) by Dunbal on Thursday March 16 2017, @09:29PM (1 child)
Who the fuck would invest money to "restore land back to nature"? I did it so my grand-children can make money. Now, argue that the piece of land which was deforested, abandoned scrubland and pasture when I bought it is worse off than it was now that it's covered with forest canopy and protected from erosion by deep and extensive roots. But hang on, before you do that - in what way exactly have YOU made an impact on the environment? And don't talk to me about recycling your plastic bottles because I do that too.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 17 2017, @01:12AM
Who the fuck would invest money to "restore land back to nature"?
Someone trying to attract eco-tourists, perhaps? Anyway, you get a silver star for planting trees. Thank you.