Overview
This project aimed to explore the feasibility of biochar as a method for removing infected material from oil palm blocks to inform a business case for oil palm derived biochar production in Papua New Guinea.
Oil palm is a long-term perennial crop of great economic importance in South-East Asia and the Pacific, providing much needed income to both large plantations and smallholders. Unfortunately, basal stem rot, caused by the fungus 'Ganoderma boninense', poses an increasingly major threat to the oil palm industry.
The project aimed to establish whether it is technically feasible and economically sensible to support the sanitation of oil palm plantations infected by Ganoderma, through the removal of infected logs and wastes and their conversion to biochar in Papua New Guinea.
