The production efficiency of herbicides in palm oil plantation in Sumatera and Kalimantan

Abstract

The presence of weeds in palm oil plantations have been widely known to result in a decrease in the quantity and quality of fresh fruit bunches (FFB), disruption to plant growth, increased pest and disease attacks, disruption of water use, and in general will increase the cost of farming. These systemic risks have been mitigated with the use of herbicides. The economic use of herbicides has a positive impact on reducing production costs, especially saving labor costs and time during land clearing and plant maintenance so as to increase farmers' income and profits. The efficiency of palm oil production by using herbicides and other weed control alternatives and the determinants were analyzed with a production efficiency approach. Production functions explain the technical relationship between a number of inputs used with output in a production process in palm oil sector. The regression method was carried out by utilizing survey data of palm oil farmers in Indonesia's palm oil plantation centers in Riau-, Jambi, Central-and West Kalimantan-Provinces. The results showed that the factors which significantly affect production efficiency of the sample consisting of age planting, glyphosate dosage, paraquat dosage, KCl fertilizer, and Dummy land area. Meanwhile, the use of paraquat, glyphosate, KCl, and urea was considered non optimal. Hence, it is recommended to add the use of herbicides to attain the optimization of production.