EVALUATION OF GROWTH, YIELD AND QUALITY COMPONENTS OF OIL PALM TREES EXISTING IN THE NORTHEAST OF THAILAND

Biodiesel industry from crude palm oil (CPO) is taken into account as a national agenda of Thailand since petroleum cost has adversely affected the economics of the country. The northeastern region is one of the focused areas for oil palm development and extension for biodiesel production. Apart from a regional yield trial, a time-consuming process, which is essential for development program, evaluation of existing oil palm trees may provide useful information in terms of tree performance and oil quality. Survey of over-3-years-old oil palm yield in the NE has been conducted by Nong Khai Oil Palm Research Center since June 2005 throughout five provinces of the Northeast, including Nong Khai (NK), Kalasin (KS), Buri Ram (BR), Loei (LO), and Amnat Charoen (AC). All palms at NK were of true hybrid Tenera, a desirable commercial line, while the others were the various mixtures of either Tenera or Dura or Pisifera, depending on source of planting materials, i.e. seedlings. Bunches of oil palm from BR and AC were sampled for oil content analysis. The percentage of oil is 24.9 and 22.8, respectively. Phenological study of oil palms was undertaken from June 2005 to May 2006, which reveals that among the four locations including, KS, BR, LO and AC only 25-43% of the existing palms were true Tenera hybrids. Increases in leaf number per month range from 1.5-1.9, while areas of the 17th leaf vary from 2.8 to 5.6 m². Numbers of the female inflorescence per palm were 10.5, 5.9, 4.8, 3.9 and 8.1, respectively, while the male inflorescence per palm were 5.4, 11.5, 18.9, 17.2 and 7.7, respectively. Number of bunches per palm were 10.1, 3.8, 3.8, 2.7 and 6.3, respectively.