The Edge Malaysia (23/01/2025) - This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on January 20, 2025 - January 26, 2025

Sustainability can sometimes be seen as a concept only achievable by those with resources, but it can also be practised by smallholders and bring about financial benefits, according to the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).

According to RSPO, 85% of oil palm plantation owners are smallholders and 4.36% of total oil palm plantations are RSPO-certified (as at June 2023), a number that is increasing.

During a recent RSPO Roots of Sustainability tour in southern Thailand, ESG spoke to RSPO-certified smallholders in the Surat Thani province to understand their sustainability practices and how they have improved their businesses.

Different approaches to sustainable harvesting

The yield of palm oil is impacted by the condition of the trees when they were first planted four to five years before. Thus, it is important for smallholders to have good and sustainable farming practices from the start.

To reduce unwanted outcomes, the smallholders of the Lumnam Kadee Pattana Oil Palm Community Enterprise Group, an RSPO-certified plantation group that started in 2018, have been using sustainable harvesting methods.

After being certified by RSPO, the smallholders have seen increased yields of three to four times, which they say is higher than Thailand’s average.

With a plantation just shy of 6.5 acres, the farmers utilise all sorts of natural methods to cultivate their land. One example is the use of a chain of love flowers — relying on their secreted pheromones — as a natural defence against pests.

A group of less than 10 on-field workers harvest the oil palm using hand tools, cutting down leaves and leaving them around the trees to decompose, which further deters pests, they say.

The plantation also has a natural canal with sprinklers installed for the watering of trees, and this is especially crucial for periods with reduced rainfall.

Meanwhile, the RSPO Palm Oil Production and Fresh Fruit Bunches Collection Centre use intercropping, which is a farming technique where different but complementary species are planted together to keep the plantation naturally resistant to pests.

Pandan is one of the best crops to use for intercropping with oil palm, as it does not require as much sunlight and is easily cultivated. Additionally, bee farming is deployed on the farm as a pollinator for other plants. The honey and pandan leaves are another source of income for the farmers.

However, this must be done in the early stages of planting oil palm, as the canopy of mature trees will reduce the amount of sunlight reaching the ground.

Waste-to-energy a source of income

Biogas power plants are more common in Thailand than other palm oil producing countries, owing to the former’s oil palm plantations being located considerably closer to the city, which means the plantations are in closer proximity to electricity grids.

These power plants bring in revenue of US$500 (RM2,300) to US$800 a year from generating electricity from waste. The Southern Palm Oil Group, which is certified by RSPO, received returns on its investment in a biogas power plant after five years, says Trin Phongpetra, executive director of the company.

Southern Palm Oil’s biogas power plant, which can produce 18mw of electricity, is able to supply about 2mw of electricity back to the community. Excess energy is sold to the grid.

The biogas plant, which captures methane, needs the right bacteria strain to break down the palm oil mill effluent. The company runs research experiments together with university labs to identify the microbe or bacteria that produces the most methane and the right conditions to do so.

“We need to keep the temperature quite stable for the bacteria. If the temperature fluctuates, the results change. We would have a problem when we shut down the mill, because it needs time to cultivate the bacteria,” says Phongpetra.

“The gas will get circulated in a lagoon for 15 days and it will be cleaned by scrubbers, which will reduce the sulphur content. Then we will reduce the moisture content before sending the gas [to be used to generate electricity].”

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