ICOPE 2018 : CIRAD, Austindo & BPP/Agraria present findings on BARformula Compost Technology
From left to right : Dr. Jean Pierre Caliman, Rajiv S., Michelle Alriani, Pravin Pillai, Dr. Xavier Bonneau, Dr. Alan Rivald
27 March 2018. Bali, Indonesia. French Agriculture Agency CIRAD and Indonesian Palm Oil company Austindo presented their findings on a two year long research programme which involved BPP/Agraria’s BARformula Technology for composting Palm Oil waste, at the 6th International Conference on Oil Palm & The Environment. The conference, organised by Indonesian Palm Oil conglomerate Sinarmas, WWF & CIRAD was attended by The United Nation’s Food & Agriculture Organisation, Cambridge University, the United Nations ITU, The European Union, ISCC, many of the large Malaysian and Indonesian Palm Oil groups and saw participation from over 30 countries. Palm Oil has in recent years become a hot button issue with global environmental organisations and events such as the ICOPE play a key role in guiding global policies for governments and international trade.
The research programme, aimed at determining, among other things, the efficacy of BPP/Agraria’s BARformula Composting Technology in managing POME & EFB waste and it’s economic feasibility as a nutrient replacement for petroleum based fertiliser. The findings presented at the conference showed that the composting technology was able to effectively manage Oil Palm waste, consuming up to 94% of effluent from the mill and all of the EFB as biomass in the period of the research. The studies also found that the final product, a fibrous organic matter was rich in nutrients and could provide up to 30 percent of the estates fertiliser needs. The study found that process reduced GHG emissions by 75%.
The BARformula Composting Technology is a microbial process developed by Malaysian scientist Prathapan Pillai, a former researcher with the Sabah Land Development Board. The technology was first developed as protocols for Sime Darby’s waste management system in 2006 and then later commercialised. Prathapan who is now the Executive Chairman of Agriculture firm BPP/Agraria moved on to develop a fully integrated microbial system of waste management and a microbiological manufacturing plant in Malaysia where they develop BioAgriculture inputs for the Palm Oil industry. To date BPP/Agraria has completed 18 BARformula Technology Composting plants in Indonesia & Malaysia, converting an estimated 18.5 Million tonnes of Palm oil waste into organic fertiliser to date.