Oil palm empty fruit bunch biochar fertilizer as a solution to increasing the fertility of peat soil for sustainable agriculture

Purpose: Utilization of waste oil palm empty fruit bunches as an ameliorant in the form of biochar enriched with chickenmanure and urea fertilizer to increase the fertility of immature (seedling) oil palm planted on peat soil which has poor soilphysical, chemical, and biological characteristics.Methods: Biochar material, namely empty fruit bunches, was subjected to conventional pyrolysis for ۳, ۴ and ۵ hours ata temperature of ۴۰۰°C. Then the biochar is weighed to get the desired proportion of biochar then sieved through a ۶۰mesh sieve.nd analyzed for pH, ash content, organic-C, total-N, total-P, total-K, as well as biochar functional groups usingFourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), and structural analysis using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM).The implementation of the research consisted of ۲ activities, namely ۱) Planting oil palm seedlings in polybags by givingtreatment according to the dose and ۲) Chemical characterization of biochar, peat soil properties and growth and NPKuptake of oil palm seedlings.Results: Bs۱ treatment: (Biochar oil palm empty fruit bunches: chicken manure:urea by (۲۸۰g:۵۵۵g:۹۰g) increased plantheight to ۲۱۳%, ۳۶% number of leaves, ۴۹.۷% soil total N, ۱۶.۲% available P, and ۳۵% available K compared to control.Conclusion: Palm oil waste in the form of empty bunches of biochar, has special properties such as porous structure,relatively large surface area with various functional groups, hence it has the potential as an ameliorant to increase marginal soil fertility including peat and increase plant growth of oil palm seedlings.

کلیدواژه ها:

Marginal soil. Peat ، Biochar ، Oil palm waste ، Chicken manure