PETALING JAYA (July 21): Sime Darby Plantation Bhd plans to use its GenomeSelect oil palm seeds for all replanting activities starting 2023.

The group has replanted up to 1,000ha of its mature crop areas a year, said Sime Darby Plantation head of biotechnology and breeding Dr David Appleton.

"Within three years we hope to have enough capacity to replant and to sell GenomeSelect to other parties," Appleton said in a dialogue entitled "Why is innovation in yield is critical to the future of the palm oil industry".

The group's chief research and development officer, Dr Harikrishna Kulaveerasingam, said Sime Darby Plantation plans to plant 7,500ha of its plantation land with GenomeSelect seeds.

"Normally we plant 14,000ha to 15,000ha per year, so half of the plants will be Genome. By 2023 [it will be] all Genome, plus we will [hopefully have] extra to sell.

"Every year we plant 5% of [our planted area of] 320,000ha in Malaysia. [It] ends up being 14,000ha to 15,000ha of replanting each year, so we can supply enough seeds to replant the entire area," said Harikrishna.

The GenomeSelect yields some 11 tonnes of crude plam oil (CPO) per hectare, compared with nine tonnes by its best planting material so far, he said.

The group's eventual aim, he added, is to produce eight to nine tonnes of CPO per hectare regardless of weather conditions.

In terms of fresh fruit bunches, Harikrishna said that in its planting trials in 2016, Sime Darby Plantation planted GenomeSelect seeds on 50ha of its coastal and inland areas.

"The first 50ha was planted in April 2016 [in the coastal areas]. Normally oil palm goes into commercial production in the third year, so we completed four years and one complete commercial harvesting," he added.

According to the planter, the GenomeSelect seeds have demonstrated a potential yield increase of 20% when compared with to its best planting material to date.