Agriculture, Food, and Food Security - Dragons and Tigers: A Geography of South, East and Southeast Asia - page 127

mechanized rice mills have recently displaced millions of
women (and men) across Asia, hitting particularly hard in
Vietnam, Indonesia, and Bangladesh. As rice mills elimi-
nate perceived drudgery , they simultaneously eliminate
what may be the singular means of family income.

donesia is currently the world' is number one producer.
Both countries are exporting large amounts of palm oil to
China and India, the largest consumers. Palm oil is the
most consumed edible oil in India. Thailand has also en-
tered the oil palm business.
Why is palm oil so popular? It is because it has un-
paralleled productivity . In fact, the oil palm seed is
the most productive oil seed in the world.
A single hectare of palm oil may yield 5,000
kilograms of crude oil—6,000 liters of crude.
For comparison, soybeans and corn generate only
446 and 172 liters per hectare, respectively .
Palm oil is a significant ingredient for the
production of biofuel. The European Union imports
about 3.5 million tons that could supply up to
20 percent of its biofuel needs in 2012.
In 2007 alone, Malaysia exported palm oil worth
nearly US$10 billion. It has opened dozens of
plants to process the raw oil into fuel for export to
China and Europe. The Finnish firm Nestle uses
imported palm oil to make a biofuel that runs some
of Helsinki' s buses.

Plantation Economies

Plantations are commercial, monocrop enterprises that
focus on a single crop such as coconuts, bananas, coffee,
tea, rubber, or palm oil. Plantations are often foreign
owned and employ local or foreign labor. Plantations
were introduced by colonial powers. For example, the
British introduced tea plantations in southern India and
Sri Lanka (Ceylon), and rubber plantations into Malaysia
(Malaya). Indian laborers were brought into both Sri
Lanka and Malaysia and remain minority communities
in those countries. Plantations are designed for export.
T Typically, , they are located near coasts or at least have ac-
cess to ports. Most plantations are in tropical regions.

PALM OIL
The most popular plantation crop of the twenty-first cen-
tury is the oil palm Figure 5-7. The two largest producers
of palm oil are Malaysia and Indonesia, although the va-
riety they grow ( Elaeis guineenensis) is native to tropical
Africa. The tree was introduced into Malaysia at the be-
ginning of the twentieth century and was first planted
commercially there in 1917. T Today, , almost half of
Malaysia' is cultivated land is planted with oil palms. In-

Indonesia recently announced that it plans to devote
40 percent of its oil crop to biofuel production.
Palm oil is widely used for cooking and in a variety
of food products such as margarine, as a base for
cosmetics, and to make engine lubricants.
Palm oil plantations are often controlled by multina-
tional corporations. For example, KS Natural Resources
(KSNR) is an Indian company headquartered in Singa-
pore. KSNR, which is scheduled to produce palm oil, is a

•

Figure 5-7
This is the fruit of the oil palm. The fruit is
crushed and the oil is processed for cooking and a
variety of other products such as soap, cosmetics,
margarine, and biofuel. Malaysia and Indonesia
are the world' s primary producers of palm oil.
Photograph courtesy of B. A. Weightman .