11/11/2008 (Bernama), Bangi -- The Ministry of Plantation Industries and Commodities has target 200,000 hectares of oil palm for the replanting scheme, which will involve trees of more than 25 years old.

Its Minister, Datuk Peter Chin Fah Kui said due to the postponement of replanting, about six percent or 280,000 hectares of oil palm in the country now had trees that were over 25 years old.

He said smallholders were encouraged to replant oil palm areas having trees of more than 25 years, as the Fresh Fruit Bunches (FFB) yield, was low at about 17 tonnes per hectare annually.

"The trees are also more than 50 feet tall and this causes difficulty in harvesting," Chin said at the opening of the National Oil Palm Smallholders Conference 2008 here.

He said under the replanting scheme, smallholders are given a RM1,000 grant for each hectare replanted.

The Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi recently announced that RM200 million had been allocated under the Oil Palm Replanting Incentive Scheme.

According to Abdullah, the replanting needed to be undertaken now when the the price of palm oil was low and it would reduce production by 700,000 tons annually for the 200,000 hectares.

Meanwhile, Chin believed that the production of FFB could be increased by utilising technology and new techniques, including quality stock for planting and high yielding cloned varieties as well as proper use of fertilisers.

Other measures include effective pest control and diseases as well as the quality harvesting of fruits, he said.

He said that the rate of production for smallholders was 13.44 tons a hectare annually compared to 19.03 tons for the plantation sector.

For smallholders, the FFB production cost per hectare is estimated at between RM150 to RM200 per ton depending on the efficiency of the smallholding management, he said.

He added that efficiency in the production cost for smallholders can be achieved by managing smallholdings on an integrated basis, for example by bringing agricultural land under the management of a government agency, association or cooperative.

He was confident that the use of new technology along with efficient and quality farming practices, will result in lucrative earnings in the future.