An agriculture academic don claimed that the Sri Lankan Government's ad-hoc decision to ban oil palm cultivation which was based on unscientific opinions, has not only disrupted the palm oil industry locally, but globally as well by impacting other leading palm oil producing countries like Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand negatively, and also in the process creating doubts among consumers.
These claims were made by Prof. S.P. Nissanka (attached to the Peradeniya University's Agriculture Faculty's Crop Science Department) in an editorial on the "Oil palm industry in Sri Lanka: Its production potential and current status, and future prospects" which was published in the Ceylon Journal of Science's 52nd Volume's Second Issue in June, 2023.
Among different types of vegetable oil, palm oil produced from oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) seeds, is unparalleled in terms of productivity, and is an important and versatile oil that is used as a raw material in both the food and non-food industries. Palm oil, as mentioned in G. Pande, C.C. Akoh and U.N. Wanasundara's "Vegetable oils in food technology: Composition, properties and uses", is used for food related applications such as cooking, margarine, spreads, confectionery fats, ice cream, and emulsifiers. K.H. Chung's "Oil palm and Its contributions to the world" notes that due to its high oil production potential under tropical wet climatic conditions, the highest extent of commercial cultivation, as D. Sheil, A. Casson, E. Meijaard, M. van Noordwijk, J. Gaskell, T. Sunderland, S. Wertz-Kanounnikoff and M. Kanninen's "The impacts and opportunities of oil palm in South East Asia: What do we know and what do we need to know?" adds, is now in the South Asian region. The oil palm plantations in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand produce, per R.H.V. Corley and P.B. Tinker's "The oil palm", almost 90% of the global palm oil production. The World Bank's "Land area - Oil palm cultivation" adds that the total extent of the oil palm cultivated land in the world is 19 million ha as of 2018, and that it covers about 6% of the total cultivated lands globally, contributing to about 35% of the world’s vegetable oil demand. Palm oil is one of the major edible oils used in the world as cooking or frying oil, and supplies about 40% of the total traded vegetable oil in the world.
W.H. Verheye's "Soils and soil management for the sustainability of the oil palm cultivation" explains that the oil palm is a tropical plant species, thus, it grows best in stable, warm areas, with sufficient soil moisture all year round in the tropical belt - i.e. in latitude range of 100 north and south of the equator. An Indonesian study further explains that for optimum growth, development and production, it needs five-six hours of bright daily sunshine, annual rainfall of 2,000–4,000 millimetres (mm), a low vapour pressure deficit and mean maximum temperatures of 29–33 degrees Celsius ( C ) and a mean minimum of 22–24 degrees C. Under optimum growing conditions, the oil palm can potentially produce eight-10 metric tonnes (MT) of oil per ha per year.
The oil palm was introduced to the southern part of Sri Lanka in 1968, where the required soil, warmer temperatures (24-32 C) and rainfall (over 2,500 mm annual) related conditions prevail. Since establishing for the first time at the Nakiyadeniya estate of the State Plantations Corporation, other plantation companies of Agalawatta, Namunukula, Elpitiya, Kotagala, Kegalle and Bogawanthalawa also converted their marginal rubber and tea lands to the oil palm, expanding the total extent to about 11,132 ha by 2018, thereby becoming one of the most profitable plantation crops in the region.
Oil palm cultivation is vital in Sri Lanka as an edible oil producing crop. In 2020, the total edible oil production of Sri Lanka was 44,326 MT. Per the Coconut Development Authority's "Annual report (2020)", coconut oil production was 19,759 MT, and crude palm oil and palm kernel oil production was 24,567 MT. In 2020, the quantity of fats and oil imported to the country was 219,295 MT. The total foreign exchange outflow in 2020, per the Plantation Ministry, was Rs. 37,378 million for edible oil imports. If the shortfall amount is produced within the country, a significant amount of foreign currency can be saved. If coconut is used to fulfill the oil shortfall within the country, an additional cultivation extent of 271,000 ha is needed. The average oil yield of coconut lands is around 0.8 MT per ha per year. However, the oil palm produces an average of over two-three MT of oil per ha per year in Sri Lanka. However, it has the potential to produce 8-12 MT per ha annual oil yield under good management, thus needing only 50,000 ha of oil palm cultivated land to meet the national oil demand. The oil yield of the oil palm is approximately five times more than the coconut palm oil yield, per the Solidaridad Network. Therefore, oil palm cultivation is crucial to a developing country like Sri Lanka as a way of saving foreign currency, while fulfilling the national vegetable oil shortfall. And, any excess production can be exported. A policy decision was taken by the Plantation Ministry in 2014 to expand oil palm cultivation, considering the crop diversification programme, with Regional Plantation Companies (RPCs) subjected to special guidelines. Under that programme, as G.M.M.T. Senavirathne, A.M.A.U. Bandara and L.L.W. Ekanayake's "Policy of oil palm cultivation in Sri Lanka: An overview" mentions, the maximum allowable extent is 20,000 ha. The Government’s intention of this expansion was to reduce the import cost of edible oil and to accomplish the national edible oil requirement within the country.
However, the oil palm industry has been criticised by environmental activists, some social and religious groups and politicians, considering its impacts on the biodiversity, the usage of a large quantity of water that could result in the depletion of ground and surface water resources, soil degradation, environmental pollution and some social impacts as well, which challenge the further expansion of the industry. Most of these criticisms are opinion based, and are not based on credible scientific investigations at the local level. According to several, long term research studies related to the environmental impacts of oil palm cultivation that have been carried out in many other oil palm growing countries, the crop water usage for one ha of oil palm cultivation is somewhat comparable to the requirements of a rubber cultivation of the same extent. According to the Solidaridad Network, coconut, rubber, and oil palm consume 130, 63 and 249 litres of water per day per plant, respectively. Considering the per ha average plant densities of 160, 520 and 143 for coconut, rubber and oil palm, respectively, the amount of water consumed in litres per day per ha by each crop was 20,800, 32,760 and 35,607 litres, respectively. Thus, results indicated higher water use efficiencies for oil palm and no considerable difference in the total water usage per unit land area (ha) between the oil palm and rubber.
According to the guidelines of the Coconut Research Institute of Sri Lanka (CRI), the oil palm can be grown successfully in the low country wet zone agro-ecological regions where the annual rainfall is over 2,500 mm and is well distributed. Environmental concerns on soil erosion and soil water status are rather management dependent, and therefore, by implementing proper soil conservation measures, soil erosion could be minimised. Pest and disease incidences are relatively less in the oil palm, relative to tea and rubber, thus, pesticide usage and associated environmental pollution can be low. Similar to rubber and coconut, the complete eradication of weeds is not practiced in oil palm cultivations. Though understory vegetation can be maintained through periodical weeding, it is not expected to have higher floral diversity comparable to natural forests. H.M.T. Chamara, S. Wijesundara and M.A. Wijeratne's "Effects of forest fragmentation on plant diversity and vegetation structure in the Sinharaja man and biosphere Reserve" reported that soil properties (organic carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium) and the floral diversity of different age classes of rubber and oil palm fields at the Nakiyadeniya estate were similar. Due to the higher productivity (over 18 MT per ha per year of fresh fruit bunches [FFB]) and the associated higher removal of nutrients with the harvest, compared to rubber and coconut, a higher rate of fertiliser application is needed. A higher rate of leaf photosynthesis, lower light saturation and higher leaf area index are attributed for greater canopy photosynthesis and yield. It was reported that the oil palm is highly efficient in converting sunlight, nutrients and water into photo-assimilate and in providing good ground cover, so that soil erosion can be minimised under well-established fields. For the overall FFB production at the field level and different product development at the factory level, the water footprint values are relatively low for the oil palm, and also generate less grey water compared to rubber. Oil palm vegetation sequesters atmospheric carbon dioxide and acts as a carbon sink during its rotation period of 30 years, providing a valuable ecosystem related service. Since marginal rubber lands and abounded lands can be converted to oil palm cultivations, there is no threat of deforestation as well.
Due to the continued pressure, sometimes politically motivated, from social groups and non-Governmental organisations, the Government banned oil palm cultivation in 2020 and even ordered plantation companies to remove trees in a phased-out manner and to replace the same with rubber. These decisions were taken based on unscientific opinions including the high water usage of oil palm trees that could result in depleting the groundwater table and lead to biodiversity losses and soil degradation. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the scientific community to critically and comprehensively analyse all such issues raised and provide transparent, evidence based answers against opinion based views, and to find sustainable solutions for the betterment of the entire plantation industry, Prof. Nissanka emphasised.