Visit Jonggol Teaching Farm

Group 1, Bogor, November 10, 2017

Joggol teaching farm located in Desa Singasari, Kecamatan Jonggol, Kabupaten Bogor. It has 168 Ha of
plantation land that can accommodate 20,160 oil palm plant. Before Jonggol teaching farm established,
the land was used as rubber planting. But in 2013, the land was replanting by palm oil under Bogor
Agriculture University authority.

The vast oil palm land has divided into four main blocks. This is necessary to facilitate the scheduling of
harvesting and maintenance of oil palms in relation to the limitation of labor. This teaching farm has six
labor which harvesting and maintenance the whole plantation. It takes 2.5-3 years for oil palm to produce
his first fruit. One oil palm can produce 6-8 bunches of palm fruit.

Currently, the seed that is used in Indonesia and this teaching farm is Tenera, which is the result of cross-
breeding from the type of Dura and Pisifera. Tenera oil palm has the best characteristics to be cultivated.
Among the levels of the thickness of the shell about 0.5-4 mm and have fibers that envelop it. The flesh
of oil palm is also thick to produce oil in greater quantities.

In plantation field, it is essential to make sure that every single oil palm has an optimum space to grow to
avoid the leaves overlap. The triangular (equal sides) planting space system usually used in Jonggol
teaching farm. It has 9 m for planting space, 7-8 m for space between row, and the planting density is
about 116-150 palms/ha. It is normal if the frond of one palm oil overlapping the others frond. However,
we have to make sure that the lowest frond must be pruned by leaving 2-3 frond below the lowest bunch
and pruned 6-7 of leaf spiral. Palm leaves are cut using chisel as palm trees grow tall for more than 10
years. Meanwhile, if the palm does not grow too high (3-9 years), cutting palm leaves simply use egrek.
The frond-cutting wastes are stacked diagonally in one place, and then let it decompose naturally for 6
months and it will become an organic fertilizer.

One indicator of palm fruits ready to be harvested is that there are approximately five palm fruits losing
from the bunch and then falling off to the ground. To release the bunch of fruit from the palm rod, we can
use chisel. Therefore, there is two type of crude palm oil, bunches fruit and losing fruit. Plantation area
have some point area that facilitate labor to collect palm oil fruit from different block. Bunches and loosed
fruits carried to collection spot by fruit cart and then transported to the factory by truck to processed.

Jonggol teaching farm used to sell their products to PTPN VIII in Lewiliang, Kabupaten Bogor. There is
same price between bunches fruit and loosing fruit if teaching farm selling it to PTPN VIII. The price is Rp.
1,500 per kilogram. The weight of a fresh bunches fruit is around 5-10 kg, so the price of a fruit palm oil
bunch is around Rp. 7,500-15,000. However, if teaching farm sell it to wholesalers, the bunches fruit still
Rp. 1,500 per kilogram, but the loosing fruit price only Rp.300-500 per kilogram.

On maintenance oil palm, we need to handle same pests and diseases also. We can control pests by
insecticides and pesticides. Besides, we can cope this problem mechanically and biologically with the help
beneficial plant or biological agents and predator. Any disease has their own symptom and we can handle
it with fungicide. Controlling weed around the oil palm is needed by slashing manually, hand weeder, and
chemically with herbicides.