Pests of Oil palm in Papua New Guinea, with emphasis on West New Britain
C. F. DEWHURST (1)
(1) PNG Oil Palm Research Association, Kimbe, NEW GUINEA
Phytopathology 101:S219

Oil Palm (Elaeis guineensis) is native to West Africa but was introduced into Papua New Guinea (PNG) for commercial planting in 1967. It is now PNG’s highest earning agricultural export, producing oils that are very widely used. Over 130,000ha are currently under oil palm with 12 processing mills supporting estates and 18,313 smallholder blocks (Dec 2009). PNG uniquely manufactures traceable, sustainable palm oil adhering to the Principles and Criteria of The Round Table for Sustainable Palm Oil (www.rspo.org) and is also ISO14001 accredited. The commercial life span of an oil palm is about 20 years. As with other monoculture crops, and introductions to PNG, oil palm is attacked by many invertebrate, vertebrate and fungal pest taxa. Principle pests are Orthoptera (Tettigoniidae), Coleoptera (Scarabaeidae & Curculionidae), Lepidoptera (Psychidae), and Muridae (Rodentia) with few attacks from birds (Aves). One taxon of fungi (Ganoderma boninense) has a devastating effect on oil palm productivity. The management of pests is focussed on the principles of Integrated Pest Management, where chemical intervention is only used when populations reach threatening levels. At this stage supervised targeted trunk injection (TTI), using a systemic insecticide, is undertaken. Failure to treat pests in a timely manner can cause large financial losses due to reduced production which can take years to recuperate.

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