POTENCY AND MANAGEMENT OF ORGANIC MATERIALS IN RUBBER PLANTATION IN INDONESIA

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1 POTENCY AND MANAGEMENT OF ORGANIC MATERIALS IN RUBBER PLANTATION IN INDONESIA Imam Susetyo 1, Priyo Adi Nugroho 2, and Charlos Togi Stevanus 3 1 Getas Research Centre, Indonesian Rubber Research Institute 2 Sungei Putih Research Centre, Indonesian Rubber Research Institute 3 Sembawa Research Centre, Indonesian Rubber Research Institute Abstract Plant nutrient management, especially organic materials is one of the interesting topics to be studied more deeply in rubber tree plantation. The price of rubber tends to decrease every year. It encourages the planters to utilize organic materials as fertilizer substitute agent. Organic materials have a function to improve the physical, chemical, and biological characteristic of soil. Organic materials, besides from the plantation (in situ) such as weeds, cover crops, and twigs, but it s also be sourced from outside the plantation (ex situ) such as compost from oil palm industry. Litter potency from legume cover crop of Mucuna bracteata (Mb) in immature rubber plant area as soil organic material is big enough that is 2 7 ton/ha/year or 2,5-7 times higher than conventional cover crop. Furthermore, potency of nutrient returns to soil from Mb biomass amount 250,98 kg/ha N; 9,08 kg/ha P 2 O 5 ; 72,5 kg/ha K 2 O; and 11,95 kg/ha MgO. The existence of cover crop in immature rubber plant interrows also affect to uniformity of rubber plant, the number of mature rubber, and bark thickness better than conventional cover crop. Waste of oil palm industry such as empty fruit bunches and oil palm frond (OPF) also very potential to be used as organic material source to rubber plant. The number of rubber fine roots which is sized < 1 mm in diameter increased up to twice compared with a rubber plant without oil palm empty fruit bunches application. CEC value, C- organic and N, P, K, Ca, Mg content were reported also increased significantly. OPF is agricultural waste that have high lignin and cellulose and with an appropriate composting management become potential to produce manure compost on day 75. In Immature rubber plant, dose of 20 ton/ha increased soil porosity and decreased in bulk density compared plant without compost of OPF application. The treatment of 20 % compost + 80 % subsoil significantly increased the root dry weight of rubber plant seedling and also increased ph, CEC, C-Organic, P, K, Ca, and Mg soil content. Application of organic matter in plantation can be combined with rorak (small blocked ditches). This condition causes the water plant needs can be fulfilled in dry season hence fertilizer application will be more efficient and nutrient uptake better. Keywords: Hevea brasiliensis, organic matter, nutrient, Mucuna bracteata, compost 752

2 Potency and management of organic materials in rubber plantation in Indonesia INTRODUCTION In recent years, rubber agribusiness has been weakened due to decline rubber price. Increased production costs, especially the cost of maintenance of rubber plants, also contributed to weakness this business. In Indonesia, fertilization is estimated to be second largest component after tapping in cost of rubber plant maintenance. This condition causes many rubber plantation in Indonesia are unable to provide fertilizer according to recommended dosage. It is necessary to manage plant nutrition so that fertilizer given to the plant can be precise and amount of fertilizer lost is also reduced. One of plant management nutrition is organic matter management. Organic matter to soil have shown to have beneficial effects on soil biological, soil nutrient, and soil physical conditions. Several long-lasting experiments show that soil biological properties, such as basal respiration, carbon mineralization, and some enzymatic activities was significantly improved by compost application (Ros et al., 2006; Kaur et al., 2008; Tejada et al., 2009). He et al. (2001) reported that compost applications can increase plant-available P in the soil at 0-15 cm in 4 years. Other organic matter effect are also reported Tejada et al. (2008). The authors observed that composted leguminous plant had a positive impact on soil structural stability, which increased by 5.9 to 10.5 % compared without compost treatment. Organic materials, besides from the plantation (in situ) such as weeds, cover crops, and twigs, but it s also be sourced from outside the plantation (ex situ) such as compost from oil palm industry. In this paper, some potency and management of organic materials can be used to improve rubber plantation productivity are reviewed. ORGANIC MATERIAL POTENCY FOR RUBBER PLANTATION Utilization of organic matter is not only improve the efficiency of fertilization, but also can increase plant productivity. Rubber plantation, although have additional organic materials from fall leaves each years, but soil organic content tend to decline in long term compared forest system (Kartthikakuttayamma et al., 1998). Some potency of organic matter that can be utilized to increase productivity of rubber plant quite a lot, among others are litter of Mucuna bracteata and waste of oil palm industries, such as Empty Fruit Bunches and Oil Palm Frond. 753

3 Mucuna Bracteata Proceedings of International Rubber Conference 2017 In the beginning of 2000 s Mucuna bracteata is widely planted in many rubber and oil palm plantations in North Sumatra. Nugroho et al (2010) reported that the numbers of shoots, which are produced by Mucuna bracteata, are highly enough. Shoots which are produced (in dry weight) in the first year is 3786 kg/ha and increase to 5628 kg/ha in the second year. Compared with the others conventional cover crop which are used in rubber plantation likes Pueraria javanica (Pj), Calopogonium caeroleum (Cc), Calopogonium mucunoides (Cm), and Centrosema pubescens(cp), the potency of shoot of M. bracteata produced for 1 year is up to times higher than the others LCC (Table 2). Table 2. Biomass potential returning from legume cover crop No Kind of LCC Dry weight(kg/ha) 1. Mucuna bracteata Serelium (CC) Conventional LCC (Mix of Pj, Cm dan Cp) Paspalum conjugatum 552 Source: Nugroho et al. (2010) In the table 2 above, weed Paspalum conjugatum produces the lowest amount of litter, that is 552 kg/ha in 1 year and Serelium (CC) produces 1544 kg/ha. Conventional legumes produce the amount of shoot 1048 kg/ha in a year, besides M. bracteata produces 3786 kg/ha. The percentage results of M. bracteata and the other LCC, M. bracteata produces shoot 250% higher than CC, 700% higher than Paspalum conjugatum and 360% higher than mix of Pj, Cm and Cp. The high biomass potential that are produced by M. bracteata affect the potential of nutrient returned to the soil. The higher of biomass return, the higher nutrient returning. The N potential returned by shoots of M. bracteata was 4.3 times higher than CC, 7.1 times higher than conventional LCC and 22.3 times higher than Paspalum conjugatum. The P returning potential of M. bracteata was 2 times higher than CC, 3.6 times higher than conventional LCC and 11.8 times higher than Paspalum conjugatum. The K potential returned by shoot of M. bracteata was 2 times higher than CC, 3.7 times higher than conventional LCC and 5.8 times higher than Paspalum conjugatum. The amount of Mg which 754

4 Potency and management of organic materials in rubber plantation in Indonesia returned by shoot of M. bracteata was 3 times higher than CC, 3.8 times higher than conventional LCC and 5.2 times higher than Paspalum conjugatum. The amount of nutrient potential returned by shoots of M. bracteata in the future is expected to decrease the dosage of fertilizer in rubber, especially for N. Table 3. Nutrient returning potency to the soil from several LCC shoots 3 years after planting and the fertilizer equivalent No Kind of LCC Potential Nutrient Returning (kg/ha) N P 2 O 5 K 2 O MgO 1. Mucuna bracteata Serelium (CC) Convensional LCC (Mix of PJ, CM dan CP) Paspalum conjugatum Source: Nugroho et al (2010) Empty Fruit Bunches Oil palm empty bunches are a source of organic material that has not been explored in rubber plantations. Indonesia's palm oil mill waste reaches tens of thousands of tons / day. Solid waste in the form of empty fruit bunches (EFB) is a potential organic material used as a soil amandement, as the basic material of composting and as an organic material applied directly to the field (Darmosarkoro et al., 2000). Mature rubber applied by EFB showed positive results compared to areas without EFB. The root volume in both treatments generally showed a marked difference ( Nugroho et al. (2012) Table 4. Root number of rubber tree based on diameter after 1 year application Treatment < 0,1 mm FW (g) DW (g) root diameter < 0,1 0,5 0,51 10 mm > 10 mm mm FW DW FW DW DW FW (g) (g) (g) (g) (g) (g) With empty 112,18a 20,91a 59,85a 17,59a 56,62a 20,93a 24,82a 9,25a EFB Without 28,81 54,83b 9,97b 37,60a 10,55b 34,23a 14,56a 76,13b EFB b Figures followed by different letters (a/b) indicate significant difference In the area applied by EFB for 1 year, the rooting composition which is a relatively small diameter (<10 mm), is more higher than the 755

5 Proceedings of International Rubber Conference 2017 rooting composition in the area that is not applied by EFB. The number of roots (grams of dry weight), which are <1 mm, 1-5 mm, mm, and> 10 mm in the applied area of EFB respectively 30.45%, %, 30.47% and 13.47%,, whereas in non-applied areas of EFB was 15.65%, 16.56%, 22.86% and 45.23%, respectively. In addition beside increasing the number of fine roots, the application of EFB also have an impact on changes in soil nutrient status (Table 5). Table 5. Soil analysis result in research location 1 year EFB application Soil nutrient status Treatment CEC (me/100g) C (%) N (%) P (ppm) K exch (me/100g) Mg exch (me/100g) With EFB 18,80a 0,70a 0,20a 3,67a 1,47a 2,00a Without EFB 16,00a 0,42a 0,11b 3,00a 1,38a 1,10a Figures followed by different letters (a/b) indicate significant difference Oil Palm Frond (OPF) Oil palm frond (OPF) disposal is poorly managed which leads to environmental problem. Based on prunning data from the management of Sembawa Research Center, 40 to 48 fronds of 8 14 years old plants are maintained after prunning, in other words, about 16 to 24 pruned frond per tree per year are produced by the plantations. Assuming that the frond dry weight is between 4 to 5 kg (Simanihuruk et al., 2007), the potential for pruned fronds produced by the plantation reaches kg/tree/year or approximately ton/hear/year (populations of 130 trees/ha). Because of its high content of lignin (20-21 %) and cellulose (40-50 %) (Abdul Khalil et al., 2012), rapid decomposition of the OPF is difficult to achieve. With an appropriate composting management, OPF have an potential as organic compost that can be applied as soil amendment to promote rubber plant growth. Addition of organic matter to soil can increase population of soil microorganisms, such as fungi and bacteria. Mycelium from the fungi is able to bind soil particle together, while bacteria has function as binding agents for aggregates soil (Young, 1997). Research resulted that application of OPF-based compost in Ultisol decreased of bulk density amount of % compared without compost treatment (Figure 1). In addition, soil porosity has increased with increasing doses compost (Figure 2). The roots of the rubber plant will develop well through improvement of soil physical properties. Application of OPF-based compost with dose of 20 % (w/w) in rubber plant seedling resulted in the 756

6 Soil Porosity (%) Bulk Density (g/cm3) Potency and management of organic materials in rubber plantation in Indonesia highest root dry weight and significantly different from control and other treatments (Table 1) y = x x R² = Dosage of OPF-based compost (ton) Figure 1. Relationship between dosage of OPF-based compost with bulk density y = x R² = Dosage of OPF-based compost (ton) Figure 2. Relationship between dosage of OPF-based compost with soil porosity OPF-based compost application to compost increased P, K, Ca, and Mg soil contents (Table 2). Generally behave as a slow-release source of N over many months or years since the rapidly decomposable compounds have been previously degraded during the composting process (Nevens and Reheul, 2003; Mikkelsen and Hartz, 2008). The OPF-based compost residue can be used as a nutrient bank for the growth of rubber plants in the field. 757

7 Proceedings of International Rubber Conference 2017 Table 6. Compost effect on root dry weight of rubber plant nursery Treatment Root dry weight (gram) 100 % subsoil (control) 3.98 a 20 % compost + 80 % subsoil (w/w) 6.30 b 40 % compost + 60 % subsoil (w/w) 3.07 a 60 % compost + 40 % subsoil (w/w) 2.76 a 80 % compost + 20 % subsoil (w/w) 3.30 a 100% compost 3.00 a annotation: values followed by the same letter within a column are not significantly different at the 0.05 level. Table 7. Initial nutrients content of soil and final nutrients content of media of each treatment CEC Organi c C N P K Ca Mg Treatment ph cmol cmol cmol(+) (mg/kg cmol(+ (%) (%) (+) (+) /kg ) ) /kg /kg /kg Initial soil % subsoil (control) % compost + 80 % subsoil (w/w) % compost + 60 % subsoil (w/w) % compost + 40 % subsoil (w/w) % compost + 20 % subsoil (w/w) % compost MANAGEMENT OF ORGANIC MATERIALS IN RUBBER PLANTATION OPF-Based Compost Based on the analysis, the percentage of organic C of OPF was very high which indicates that the waste require a long time to completely decompose. Therefore, it is necessary to add other organic materials like cow manure and green material in order to reach the optimum C/N ratio for the composting process. The analysis of organic C and total N for each material was conducted to evaluate the best ratio of composting material (Table 8). Based on the best composition and equation, the initial C/N ratio of the mixture was The composting process was conducted under aerobic condition using pile system. OPF were chopped 758

8 Potency and management of organic materials in rubber plantation in Indonesia into small pieces of 3-5 cm to speed up the composting process. The raw compost were turned over every five days to ensure good aeration. Each pile has 1 m of width and height and moisture content was maintained at around %. Table 8. Organic C and total N contents of composting material Materials Organic C Total N C/N Ratio Oil palm frond * Mucuna bracteata Cow manure Note : *C/N ratio of the mix of chopped leaflets and rachis Based on research, the maximum temperature of the composting process of OPF ranged between C from day 4 to day 8. the composting was observed to fluctuate from day 12 to day 21 and then remain relatively constant from day 30 till day 75 (Figure 3). The resulted of particle size distribution analysis of OPF-based compost was grouped into five size fraction i.e. < 0.42 mm (6,61 %), mm (6.61 %), mm (12.82 %), mm (20.73 %), and 4.75 mm (53.23 %). Final C/N ratio was and final ph compost was above neutral (ph> 7). Indonesian National Standard (Standar Nasional Indonesia or SNI) of compost quality is a regulation of the quality of certain organic product for customer safety and environmental pollution prevention in Indonesia. Most of all macronutrients contents in OPF-based compost after maturity at day 75 has met the minimum SNI compost quality except K 2 O content (Table 9) Figure 3. Temperature fluctutation of OPF composting process 759

9 Proceedings of International Rubber Conference 2017 Table 9. Final weight and nutrient content of OPF-based compost Analysis Value Indonesian minimum standard of compost quality (National Standardization Agency of Indonesia, Unit 2004) ph H 2 O Organic matter 61.83* 27 % Total N % C/N ratio % P 2 O % K 2 O % Ca 0.18 n.a % Mg 0.06 ** % annotation : n.a = not available * the value obtained by multiplying the conversion factor of with C-organic ** the value can not exceeds the maximum standard of 0.6 % Rorak Rorak (soil small hole) is dead-end holes of certain size in field. Application of organic matter to plantation in Java can be combined with rorak. Rorak positively effect for growth of rubber plant and can increase water content of approximately 5 % at 0-30 cm in soil. This condition causes the water plant needs can be fulfilled in dry season hence fertilizer application will be more efficient and nutrient uptake better. Rorak effect is not only in soil and water content, but also to reduce soil erosion. Rorak was reduce leaching loss of nutrients of kg N/ha, 5-12 kg P/ha, and kg K/ha (Wijaya et al. 2009). Rorak commonly used size is 120 cm x 45 cm x 75 cm (George et al., 2005). Table 10. Effect of rorak on the growth girth and production of clones PB 311 Number of rorak/ha Growth girth (cm) Cumulative production (kg/tree) Source : George et al.,

10 Potency and management of organic materials in rubber plantation in Indonesia CONCLUSION 1. Mucuna bracteata and waste of oil palm industry such as empty fruit bunches and oil palm frond (OPF) potentially to be used as organic material source to the rubber tree. 2. Application of organic matter in plantation can be combined with rorak (soil bank). REFERENCES Abdul Khalil, H.P.S., M. Jawaid, A. Hassan, M.T. Paridah and A. Zaidon Oil palm biomass fibres and recent advancement in oil palm biomass fibres based hybrid biocomposites. In Composites and their applications, ed. N. Hu, p InTech, Rijeka. doi: / George, S., John, J., Joseph, P., Philip, A., Punnose, K.I Effects of conservation pits on growth and latex yield of hevea brasiliensis. International Natural Rubber Conference, India. He, Z., Yang X., Kahn, B.A., Stoffella, P.J., and Calvert, D.V Plant nutrition benefits of phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, and micronutrients from compost utilization. Compost utilization in horticultural cropping system, pp: Karthikakuttyamma, M., Suresh, P.R., Prasannakumari, P., George, V., and Aiyer, R.S Effects of continuous cultivation of rubber (Hevea brasiliensis) on morphological features and organic carbon, total nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium content of soil. Indian Journal of Natural Rubber Research. 11 : Kaur, T., Brar, B.S., Dhillon, N.S Soil organic matter dynamic as affected by long-term use of organic and inorganic fertilizer under maize-wheat cropping system. Nutr. Cycl. Agroecoys. Vol 81 : Mikkelsen, R. and T.K. Hartz Nitrogen sources for organic crop production. Better Crops. 92(4): Neven, F and Reheul, D The application of vegetable, fruit, and garden waste (VFG) compost in addition to cattle slurry in a silage maize monoculture : nitrogen availability and use. Europ. J. Agronomy. 19 :

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