SANDAKAN: Since March, Gino Lo has cut fertiliser use on his 80-acre oil palm plantation by a quarter, knowing the decision could come back to hurt future harvests.
The 37-year-old Sandakan smallholder told The Star he had reduced annual application from about 12kg to 9kg per palm on his plantation, which has around 4,400 oil palms.
“This will affect the yield. We will have lower yield because of the reduction in fertiliser,” he said.
In Kinabatangan, Sahdin Lias, 49, is facing a different problem.
He has not deliberately reduced the amount of fertiliser used on his 30-acre plantation, which has about 1,650 palms, but higher prices have left him unable to buy enough at one time to keep to his usual application schedule.
Sahdin said the price of one fertiliser product he regularly uses had risen from RM2,100 to RM2,400 per metric tonne.
He now buys only one tonne at a time because he can no longer afford to purchase everything he needs in one go, meaning fertiliser cannot always be applied when originally planned.
“There isn’t enough money to buy everything at once anymore. As small farmers, we have no choice,” he said.
Malaysian Estate Owners’ Association president Ahmad Zachry Anifah Aman said the first signs of under-fertilisation could appear about nine to 12 months after fertiliser is reduced, initially through lower average bunch weights.
The impact could then deepen through bunch abortion the following year and fewer female flowers, which would affect the number of harvestable bunches roughly two years later.
“The impact of decisions taken in 2026 may only be seen in 2027 and 2028,” he said.
Ahmad Zachry said a substantial fertiliser cut of around 40% could reduce yields by 20% or more over the following 18 to 24 months.
Fertiliser accounts for about 30% of an estate’s cost of production, while MEOA members in Sabah have reported freight costs rising by 20% to 30%.
Fertiliser manufacturer Baja Harapan founder Steve Lee told The Star that prolonged under-fertilisation could affect oil palms well beyond one harvest cycle.
“If oil palms do not receive the amount of fertiliser they require for one year, the impact can continue for two to three years,” he said.
Lee said Sabah fertiliser producers were heavily dependent on imported raw materials, leaving them exposed to global supply disruptions, higher freight costs and swings in commodity prices.
Nitrogen-based inputs are sourced from countries including Egypt, while ammonium chloride is imported from Vietnam and China.
Although supply had largely stabilised after earlier disruptions, prices remained high.
“The supply is there now, but the price is still high,” Lee said.
East Malaysia Planters Association chairman Datuk Syaheddrul R Joddari said smaller operators and independent growers were especially vulnerable because they lacked the purchasing power of larger plantation groups.
Bigger companies, he said, were generally better placed to negotiate long-term supply arrangements and absorb temporary cost increases.
“Reducing fertiliser usage may provide temporary cost savings, but it often leads to lower yields and reduced productivity over subsequent years,” he said.
Syaheddrul, who is also Sabah Land Development Board general manager, said relatively firm crude palm oil prices had helped cushion some of the pressure from higher input costs.
But if fertiliser costs remain elevated, he said growers would have to place greater emphasis on nutrient-use efficiency, precision agriculture and more sustainable fertiliser management.
Ahmad Zachry said Sabah faced another problem in the form of port congestion and shipment delays, which could throw fertiliser schedules off even for estates that intended to maintain full application.
In a dry year, he said, a late fertiliser round could be close to wasted, making timing almost as important as quantity.
Sabah is Malaysia’s largest crude palm oil-producing state, contributing 4.27 million tonnes, or 22.1% of national output, in 2024.
The state had about 1.48 million hectares under oil palm cultivation in 2025, with more than 30,000 smallholders managing over 191,000ha.
