I refer to the Malaysiakini report M'sian palm oil ads 'misleading' .

I refer to the full-page advertisement by Sime Darby, the world’s largest plantation company in The Star on Nov 3. Perhaps it would like to clarify if the messages in it convey the correct picture of the state of oil palm science now or if the eye-catching advertisement is targeted at the ongoing Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) meeting in Kuala Lumpur or is just self-delusion.

It is also important not to mislead other plantation companies and oil palm growers and no less importantly, concerned Malaysians and investors. Clarification is required for the following:

The picture: It indicates uniform, amazingly high-yielding palms with apparently evenly ripening fruit bunches from about the second or third whorls of fronds (ie,, say frond numbers 17 to 24). Do these palms actually exist or has the picture been digitally generated?

Are the agronomically inferior, nearly bare soil ground conditions typical for the ‘best’ growing conditions for these palms? This conveys the wrong message on the ‘perfect’ environment.

The message: The title ‘The perfect environment. Or a tree perfect for the environment’ appears great in a ‘sound-bite’. But we all know that the oil palm, being a palm, can never be a ‘perfect tree’ for the environment eg, there is more run-off under mature oil palm than rubber but taking steps to mitigate the defects to ‘acceptable’ levels including avoiding bare soil ground conditions.

We know ‘what makes each palm different’ needs to be clarified if it relates to palms in the lab or nursery or in the field. It is an extremely bold claim if it refers to the latter or perhaps I missed the Sime Darby papers on this aspect.

We know ‘what kind of ground and under what conditions they grow best’. So do all oil palm growers but unfortunately, not everybody - except perhaps Sime Darby established from some of the oldest plantation companies with choice land - has a large percentage of these types of soil and climatic conditions.

Or if re-read and interpreted/or misinterpreted as ‘we know what kind of ground and under what conditions (different individual palms) grow best’, this is a big leap forward in oil palm science although how feasible or desirable it will be to implement in the field is a totally different matter.

I take this opportunity to congratulate Sime Darby on its plantation research initiatives to date although lamenting its reduced emphasis on production research in recent years. This may have resulted in the type of misleading public relations (PR) exercise seen in this prominent advertisement.

If some of the observations above are true, it is a great disservice to the important Malaysian plantation industry and the dedicated R&D and management personnel and itself.

No agricultural activity can be perfect environmentally. However, oil palm is less damaging to the environment than many other essential oil-producing crops, especially the arable crops in the developed countries which is the basis for their NGOs making the most noise against oil palm cultivation which brings enormous economic and social benefits to developing countries.

So on balance, its cultivation is beneficial and should be encouraged in areas where they can be sustainable. PR messages like the recent one by Sime Darby are misleading and do more harm than good.