Oil palms: answer to malnutrition and land stewardship

You might think that malnutrition is primarily a production problem. If farm families could just produce more, they would be able to feed their kids. But years ago we began to understand that malnutrition is as much a function of poverty as it is a function of low productivity. People often sell food supplies in order to satisfy immediate cash needs (for example: medical care, school fees, funeral expenses) only to go hungry before the next harvest is in. For families with limited resources, even modest increase in income can ease the pressure on food supplies enough to eliminate the threat of malnutrition.

That is why part of Lusekele's program focuses on oil palms for small-holders. Harvesting palm fruit from wild palm groves and extracting palm oil is a major source of income from semi-subsistence farmers in the Kwilu region. New high-yielding oil palms can increase production two to three times over wild palms. A family which puts only an acre and one-quarter of poor crop land into permanent oil palm plantation can increase average annual income significantly over the long term.

Of course there are two proper concerns for us as Christians. First, does cash cropping that replaces food cropping really solve the malnutrition problem? The answer is "yes" if the family is selling food to satisfy other needs. The single-year income from equivalent land area for palm oil and manioc is about the same. But manioc cultivation requires a new field every year -- and a minimum of two years in bush fallow in order to avoid declining yields. Clearing a new field every year adds costs. The small palm plantation on the other hand produces a crop every year on the same piece of land -- effectively tripling income per area of land and reducing costs. Manioc that would otherwise have been sold to raise the same amount of cash can feed the family instead.

A second concern is the effect of oil palm plantations on biodiversity and ecological sustainability. In Southeast Asia and Latin America the conversion of virgin rainforest into palm plantations raises grave concerns. Here in the Kwilu Region, however, traditional slash and burn agriculture is the real threat. Growing population, shorter bush fallow periods, and declining yields have all contributed to the elimination of river valley forests. Small holder oil palm plantations are a way to replace low-yield annual cropping with higher value perennial cropping. The palms cover and stabilize the soil. Leguminous groundcover fixes atmospheric nitrogen and palms effectively conserve mobile soil nutrients through rapid recycling, the same process that allows tropical forests on infertile soils to maintain such high rates of biomass production. In present circumstances in the Kwilu region, higher income and an inherently more efficient use of limited soil nutrients make oil palms look to us like a step toward more responsible stewardship of the land. I think that's what God has in mind.

Ed