History of oil palm plantations

Oil palm was brought to Indonesia by the Dutch government in 1848. Some seeds are planted in the Bogor Botanical Gardens, while the rest of the seeds planted at the edges of the road as an ornamental plant in the Deli, North Sumatra in the 1870s. At the same time meningkatlah vegetable oil demand due to the Industrial Revolution the middle of the 19th century. From here then came the idea to make palm oil based plant selection from Bogor and Deli, the type of oil dikenallah "Deli Dura".

In 1911, plantations were cultivated and grown commercially by pioneering in the Dutch East Indies was Adrien Hallet, a Belgian, who then followed by K. Schadt. The first oil palm plantations are located on the East Coast of Sumatra (Deli) and Aceh. Plantation area reached 5123 ha. Captive breeding center and then incorporated in Marihat (known as AVROS), North Sumatra and in Rantau Panjang, Kuala Selangor, Malaya 1911-1912. In Malaya, the first plantation was opened in 1917 in the field Tenmaran, Kuala Selangor use of Deli dura seed Rantau Panjang. In West Africa alone planting of large-scale oil palm started in 1911.

Until the Japanese occupation, the Dutch East Indies is a major supplier of palm oil. Since the Japanese occupation, the production declined to only one-fifth of the number in 1940. [2]

Efforts to increase the period of the Republic carried out with the program Bumil (labor-military) were not successful in improving results, and then taken over by a major supplier of Malaya (then Malaysia).

New since the New Order era encouraged the expansion of planting area, combined with PIR plantation system. The expansion of oil palm plantations continue due to rising oil prices so that the role of rising vegetable oil as an alternative energy.

Some palm trees planted in the Bogor Botanical Gardens until now still alive, with a height of about 12m, and is the oldest oil palm in Southeast Asia from Africa.