Trimble Supports Technology adoption in Oil Palm Plantations

This software technology builds a foundation of geospatial information for the precise location and many other agronomy requirements of an oil palm plantation, whether a smallholder, a group scheme or sometimes a large sub-block area of a large oil palm plantation company. Within agronomy, Trimble technology applications include yield prediction and mapping, fertiliser management and planning and a host of other agronomy tasks based around sustainability.
Currently, many oil palm plantations can only map at a block level resolution, which limits the ability to understand the smaller, more localised issues occurring within a block, whether this is an individual or group of oil palms not performing, or a larger sub-block area of a plantation company.
The immediate benefit to plantation managers is identifying the problem, exactly where it is occurring and often what can be done specifically to remedy the situation, all before stepping into the field or mobilising a field team. Deployed across an estate, the software also provides immediate updates for often out-of-date palm tree censuses and creates a new layer of GIS data, providing a unique ID and coordinates for every oil palm in the field.
Trimble software allows previously captured geospatial information to be overlaid and analysed with current data, to ascertain whether change has occurred. When captured correctly, data for young oil palms only 1-2 metres tall can be continually monitored from first planting throughout the entire productive life of the oil palm.
Plantation management is a long-term pursuit; this approach to individual palm management enables a level of precision and targeted problem solving never previously possible, let alone the ability to unlock potential yield improvements.
Deep learning or AI (artificial intelligence) is introduced with the latest version of eCognition Version 9.3, a Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) library, whereby image filters are applied to the imagery at different resolutions & the output from each of the convolved images is used as input to the next layer to identify features. With deep learning/AI, oil palm tree detection, especially young palms, is significantly improved.
In conjunction with the analytical power of Trimble’s eCognition software, Trimble Business Center photogrammetric processing software and the required positioning technology (most frequently a Continuously Operating Reference Station) are also available to provide a complete solution for plantation operators. This combination of hardware and software offers a complete workflow and supports the use of commercially available UAVs.
Whilst initially designed for large-scale oil palm plantations, the same tools from the Trimble portfolio can also address the productivity gap, improve stakeholder engagement and the economic wellbeing of the workforce. The performance of smallholder oil palm growers is highly variable and the reasons for this variation in productivity are multiple. However, identifying poorly performing areas or individual oil palms can help prioritise smallholder engagement by millers and plantation managers seeking local FFB.
With increasing scrutiny of land used for oil palm cultivation, plantation owners or supporting NGOs can demonstrate yield improvements and reduced production costs on existing oil palm areas rather than expanding onto new land.
Closing the oil palm industry’s upstream yield gap is the future. As such, spatially referenced information will play a major role in future cost savings and yield improvements.
Meanwhile, Trimble technology will provide a language, or common currency, for sustainability professionals, plantation companies, local communities and governments to communicate with. Oil palm solutions using Trimble technology can create the early and ongoing reporting advantage that plantation companies need to stay ahead of the curve in the years to come. (For further information please contact oilpalmsolutions@trimble.com and geospatial-trimble.com/oil-palm-solution)
Source / Source: Info Sawit (infosawit.com)
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