ABSTRACT
Oil palm has proved to be the most efficient and productive oil crop, giving far higher yields when compared to soybean, rapeseed and sunflower. As of October 2014, the production of palm oil was reported at 53.67 million tonnes, compared to soybean at 41.66 million tonnes, rapeseed at 24.48 million tonnes and sunflower at 14.8 million tonnes (www.oilpalmresearch.org). Based on the statistics obtained from the Malaysian Palm Oil Board in 2015, Malaysia’s export of palm oil reached 17.31 million tonnes. The majority of Malaysian palm oil was exported to India (3.25 million tonnes), China (2.84 million tonnes) and the Netherlands (1.60 million tonnes). However, oil palm is also prone to attack by a number of fungal diseases such as basal stem rot (BSR), Fusarium wilt (vascular wilt) and bud rot disease. To date, only partial resistance materials have been identified for the BSR, and we will be providing more insights into the BSR that is causing a major problem on plantations particularly in Malaysia and Indonesia. Meanwhile, resistant planting materials were found for the latter two fungal diseases.
