KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 9 (Bernama) -- Claims by Sri Lanka Rubber ResearchInstitute director, Dr L.M.K Tillekeratne that oil palm is less versatilethan rubber is baseless and shows his ignorance of oil palm's versatility.

Primary Industries Minister, Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik made this remarkin response to Tillekeratne's recent statement on the little use of oilpalm and its lack of versatility.

"For the head of the Rubber Research Institute of Sri Lanka with littleexperience on oil palm cultivation, making such a sweeping statementclearly shows that he is ignorant of the various uses of oil palm.

"Ask our people, they will tell you that we have successfully discoveredthe versatility of oil palm," Dr Lim said. A local renowned entity in thepalm oil industry, the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) has set up itsresearch and development department to identify and widen the use of oilpalm.

At present, the MPOB and the German research institute, the FraunhoferWilhelm-Klauditz-Institut WKI, which had established a three-year researchcollaboration, have identified that oil palm biomass could be processed toproduce Medium Density Fibreboards (MDF), a substance which could be usedin furniture making.

Both organisations are now handling the first MDF-pilot plant projectusing palm oil biomass in Malaysia. Looking further, the MalaysianAgricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI) and JapanInternational Cooperation Agency (JICA) have developed a technology whichcould process the oil palm tree leaflets and petioles into animal feed(the OPF feed).

Now, the OPF feed is under the stage of being upgraded to becommercialised. Biowaste consisting of oil palm fronds, trunks and emptyfruit bunches (EFB) could be converted into biomass for another source ofenergy.

Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB), the nation power entity, uses biomass tosuccessfully convert it to energy to run its power plant in the country.Apart from MDF, it was also proven that oil palm pulps have the potentialto be used in producing papers.

Referring to the International Palm Oil Congress (PIPOC) held here inAugust last year, one of the forum speakers, E.Kendall Pye, managingdirector of Australian-based Ecopulp Pty Ltd, said through the company'sresearch they discovered that oil palm pulp could produce high qualitypaper.

His working paper on "Fine Chemicals from Pulping of Oil Palm Biomass"revealed that lignant (a chemical that binds oil palm pulps) could becommercialised as an animal feed.

The list could go on as there are many other uses of oil palm tree. Thepresent list is enough to refute the claim made by Dr Tillekeratne thatoil palm was less versatile.

It was reported in Colombo last week that Dr Tillekeratne cautioned SriLankan government on replacing rubber plantation with oil palm saying thatwithout first making a serious scientific study, the move might damage SriLanka's environment and economy.

-- BERNAMA