Potential Use of Refugia in Controlling Oil Palm Pest on Peat Swamp Land
Agus Kurniawan and Sri Utami
Environment and Forestry Research and Development Intitute of Palembang
Abstract
One of the pillars of the peat restoration is the success in revitalizing peoples livelihoods. The welfare of the community on peat swamp can improved through the efforts to the intensive agricultural. One of the commodities that is widely cultivated on peatlands is an oil palm. To ensure successful harvest and prevent the crops damage, pest control on oil palm plantations is very necessary . Pest control is carried out with various considerations including effectiveness, efficiency and effects on the environment. For ecosystem safety, biological control is highly recommended in pest control efforts. The refugia plants have proven effective in controlling pests. Refugia can be developed at relatively low cost and are environmentally friendly. The refugia can play a role in providing habitat for parasitoid organisms and predators of agricultural and forestry pests. Several types of refugia have the potential to be developed on peat swamp land and it is expected that pest attacks in oil palm plants can be controlled in an environmentally friendly manner. This protection effort is easy to apply and effective to bringing in and providing a place of life for the natural enemies of the oil palm pest.
Keywords: oil palm, pests, predator, peat swamp, refugia
Topic: International Conference on Sustainable Agriculture