Environmental performance of selected oil palm agroindustrial estates in West Sumatera and Banten Province, Indonesia

The crude palm oil (CPO) and palm kernel (PK) content of the fresh fruit bunches (FFBs) and free fatty acid (FFA) content of CPO are material use environmental performance indicators which reflected the quality of the produced nuts from the plantations and processing efficiency of the processing center. The processing center of the NES [Nucleus Estate and Smallholders] - Ophir oil palm agroindustrial estate had higher environmental performance than that of the NES-South banten agroindustrial estate. In 1985-2000, the former had a mean annual production of 19.4 tons FFBs/ha/yr with 22.4% CPO, 4.04% PK and CPO had 3.44% FFA. However, NES-South Banten produced 5.6 tons FFBs/ha/yr with 14.64% CPO, 2.50% PK and CPO had 4.92% FFA. In 1996-2000, NES-Ophir had higher water (1.06 cu.m./ton FFBs), fuel (1.18 li diesel fuel/ton FFBs) and lubricant (0.02 li/ton FFBs) use efficiency than NES-South Banten's (1.16 cu.m of water/ton FFBs, 3.49 li diesel fuel/ton FFBs, and 0.07 li lubricant/ton FFBs). However, NES-Ophir had lower energy use efficiency (14.7 kW/ton FFBs) than NES-South Banten's (12.6 kW/ton FFBs). They generated almost the same amount of solid waste per ton of FFBs but their treated wastewater did not meet the BOD [biological oxygen demand] and COD [chemical oxygen demand] regulatory standards of the Republic of Indonesia in 2000. Empty fruit bunches (EFBs) were incinerated in NES-Ophir but were used as mulch in NES-South Banten since 1997 and this reduced air pollution. Both used the fiber and the nutshell as boiler fuel. The ash from the boiler fuel and incinerator was partly used as fertilizer material in the plantations of the NES-Ophir. There were no complaints from the nearby community on the impacts of processing center on air quality and water quality of the river, which serves as sink of treated wastewater. The former generated more jobs and small enterprises related to NES development than the latter. Improvement of the environmental health and safety program is needed in the NES-Ophir processing center. The processing center of NES-Ophir had higher environmental performance than NES-South Banten's. NES-Ophir plantation had higher farm resource use efficiency and product value than NES-South Banten's with balance fertilization, integrated pest management, soil conservation, use of dried leaf stems as mulch and favorable rainfall distribution and land qualities. The smallholders of the former had 100% loan repayment while those of the latter only had 42.7%. The operational management performance of the nucleus estate and smallholders' plantations of NES-Ophir is higher than NES-South Bantens'. The mean production of the sample farms in NES-South Banten was 7.9 tons FFBs/ha which was about one-half of NES-Ophir. The overall rating of the environmental performance of NES-Ophir was higher than that of NES-South Banten