By Simpson Global Media News Desk
Scientists seek a new approach to revitalising Nigeria’s oil palm industry
Oil palm breeding experts have called for Nigeria to combine conventional plant breeding with modern biotechnology and gene-editing techniques to develop improved planting materials, increase productivity and strengthen the crop’s resilience to climate change.
The recommendation was made during a scientific lecture organised by the Nigerian Institute for Oil Palm Research (NIFOR) in Benin City, Edo State, where specialists highlighted the potential of emerging technologies to accelerate the development of oil palm varieties with desirable agricultural and industrial characteristics.
Dr Claude Bakoume, Africa Regional Representative of the International Society for Oil Palm Breeders, said gene editing could help researchers address some of the limitations of conventional breeding by enabling more targeted changes to specific plant characteristics.
He identified potential improvements including greater tolerance to drought, reduced palm height to make harvesting easier, and changes to fatty acid composition that could improve the suitability of palm oil for particular industrial applications.
Dr Rajinder Singh of the Advanced Biotechnology and Breeding Centre of the Malaysian Palm Oil Board also advocated combining established breeding methods with modern biotechnology to improve yields and speed up the development of better-performing planting materials.
The experts stressed that technological advances would need to be supported by sound field management, reliable research methods and stronger collaboration between research institutions and commercial plantations. Their recommendations reflect the growing interest in using agricultural science to respond to climate pressures and improve the productivity of important tropical crops. Sources: AgroNigeria; Prime Post/NAN.
The proposal is significant for Nigeria, where oil palm supports food processing, household livelihoods, manufacturing and agricultural trade. Better planting materials could help farmers improve output over time, but the benefits would depend on whether improved varieties can be developed, properly tested, made available at affordable prices and successfully established on farms.
The researchers did not announce that a new gene-edited oil palm variety was ready for commercial distribution. Their call concerns the integration of technologies into breeding programmes and the research needed to develop planting materials with improved characteristics.
Why oil palm matters to Nigeria
Oil palm is an important source of edible oil and industrial raw materials. Palm oil is used in cooking and food manufacturing, while palm-kernel oil and other derivatives serve markets that include soap production, cosmetics and selected industrial applications.
The crop also provides employment and income across a broad chain of activities, including nursery operations, plantation management, harvesting, fruit processing, transportation, marketing and the manufacture of finished products.
For smallholder farmers, oil palm can be a long-term agricultural investment. Once established and properly managed, mature palms can produce fruit over many years, offering opportunities for recurring income. However, the crop requires appropriate land, suitable planting materials, adequate field management and access to processing facilities.
The Nigerian Institute for Oil Palm Research says its mandate covers genetic improvement, agronomy, production, processing technology and extension services. The institute also works on coconut, date palm, Raphia palm and shea, although oil palm remains a central part of its research history. Source: NIFOR.
Nigeria has a long history of oil palm cultivation, and the crop remains closely associated with communities across the country’s southern agricultural belt. Yet the ability to convert that agricultural tradition into consistently high productivity depends on more than the availability of land and favourable growing conditions.
Planting materials differ in their yield potential, and poor-quality seedlings can undermine the returns farmers expect from an investment that may take years to reach full productive capacity. Disease, drought, inadequate fertilisation, delayed harvesting and inefficient processing can further reduce the value of the crop.
Improving the genetic characteristics of oil palm is therefore one part of a broader productivity challenge. Researchers must develop plants capable of performing well under local conditions, while farmers need practical support to establish and manage them successfully.
What gene editing could change
Gene editing is a group of scientific techniques that allows researchers to make targeted changes to genetic material. Unlike conventional breeding, which generally relies on selecting and crossing plants with desirable characteristics over multiple generations, gene editing can provide a more direct way to investigate and modify specific genetic traits.
One widely known gene-editing approach is CRISPR-based technology. Depending on the technique and research objective, scientists can alter particular DNA sequences in an effort to influence how a plant grows, responds to environmental stress or produces certain compounds.
In crop research, these approaches are being investigated for traits such as disease resistance, drought tolerance, nutrient-use efficiency, crop quality and yield-related characteristics. Their practical value varies by crop, trait and the stage of scientific development.
For oil palm, Bakoume identified three potential areas of improvement: drought tolerance, shorter plant height and modified fatty acid composition.
These are research objectives rather than guaranteed outcomes. Developing a useful trait requires scientists to understand the relevant biology, establish that the intended change works as expected and evaluate whether it affects other important characteristics.
A palm that tolerates water stress more effectively, for example, would still need to produce commercially acceptable fruit yields under real growing conditions. Similarly, a shorter palm would need to retain suitable growth, fruit production and longevity.
Gene editing may allow researchers to investigate some of these characteristics more precisely, but it does not remove the need for conventional plant science. Field trials, genetic evaluation, careful selection and long-term observation remain essential.
The experts’ recommendation is therefore not to abandon traditional breeding. It is to combine the strengths of conventional selection with newer tools that may help researchers identify, introduce or develop desirable traits more efficiently. Sources: AgroNigeria; Discover Agriculture.
Drought tolerance becomes increasingly important
One of the most important issues raised during the lecture was the potential impact of changing weather patterns and prolonged drought on oil palm productivity.
Oil palm grows best under suitable tropical conditions, and water availability is an important factor in its development and fruit production. When rainfall patterns become less predictable or dry periods last longer than expected, plantations may face additional stress.
The effects can vary according to location, soil characteristics, palm age, water availability and management practices. A period of low rainfall does not affect every plantation in the same way, but persistent water stress can threaten growth and reduce productive performance.
For farmers, weather-related losses can be especially difficult to manage because oil palm is a perennial crop. Establishing a plantation requires upfront expenditure on planting materials, land preparation, labour and maintenance. If productivity later falls because of environmental stress, the farmer cannot necessarily switch immediately to another crop without incurring substantial costs.
Developing varieties with improved drought tolerance could therefore help reduce some of these risks. Researchers would need to identify promising genetic characteristics, evaluate candidate plants under different conditions and determine whether the benefits persist over time.
It would also be important to assess how any improved varieties perform in Nigeria’s different oil palm-growing environments. A planting material that performs well in one location may not necessarily deliver the same results in another, particularly where rainfall, soils and management systems differ.
Genetic improvement would not eliminate the need for sound water management, soil conservation, suitable planting density or appropriate agronomic practices. Instead, it could form part of a wider climate-adaptation strategy that combines better varieties with improved farm management.
Climate resilience should also be assessed alongside productivity. A variety that survives difficult conditions but produces little marketable fruit may offer limited commercial value. Researchers and farmers need planting materials that balance resilience with yield, oil quality and practical harvesting requirements.
Shorter palms could make harvesting easier
Another proposed research objective is the development of oil palms that grow to a more manageable height.
Harvesting mature oil palm fruit bunches can be labour-intensive, particularly when trees become tall. Workers must identify ripe bunches, cut them safely and move the harvested fruit for processing. The task can become more difficult as the height of the palms increases.
The physical demands of harvesting can affect labour requirements, operating costs and the speed at which plantations are worked. Where suitable equipment is unavailable or too expensive, farms may depend heavily on manual labour.
A palm with a more manageable height could make it easier for workers to reach fruit bunches, potentially reducing some of the practical difficulties associated with harvesting. It may also improve harvesting efficiency and help plantations manage labour more effectively.
However, plant height is only one consideration. Researchers would need to establish whether shorter palms can maintain satisfactory fruit production, whether the trait remains stable as the trees mature and whether other characteristics are affected.
The ideal planting material would need to deliver benefits across the production cycle rather than improve harvesting at the expense of yield or fruit quality.
This is why breeding programmes generally evaluate several characteristics together. Researchers must consider the plant’s growth, productivity, resilience and suitability for the intended farming system before recommending it for wider use.
For smallholders, improvements in harvesting efficiency could be particularly valuable where labour is scarce or expensive. Nevertheless, the actual economic benefit would depend on the cost of planting materials, farm size, harvesting methods and the price farmers receive for their produce.
Improving the oil itself
The researchers also identified fatty acid composition as a potential target for improvement.
Palm oil contains different fatty acids, and its composition influences characteristics relevant to food processing and industrial use. Changes in the proportions of these components could, in principle, help develop oils suited to particular applications.
Such research would need to be guided by clear market and technical requirements. Producers would need to establish whether a modified oil offers a practical advantage, whether processors can handle it efficiently and whether the product can meet relevant quality and safety standards.
A change that is useful for one industrial application may not necessarily be desirable for another. Any breeding objective would therefore need to account for the intended end use, processing requirements and commercial demand.
The proposal highlights the potential for agricultural research to support value addition, rather than focusing exclusively on the volume of fruit harvested.
For Nigeria, a stronger domestic oil palm industry could support businesses involved in refining, food production, personal-care products and other downstream activities. Yet improved raw materials alone would not guarantee industrial growth. Reliable power, efficient processing equipment, transport infrastructure, working capital and stable market access would remain important.
The commercial case for developing modified oil characteristics would consequently depend on evidence that the change provides measurable benefits for producers or processors.
Conventional breeding remains essential
Despite the interest in new technologies, conventional breeding remains a critical foundation of oil palm improvement.
Plant breeders select palms with desirable traits, cross appropriate parent plants and evaluate their offspring to identify promising combinations. Because oil palm is a perennial crop, breeding and evaluation can require considerable time and land.
Researchers must monitor plants as they develop, observe their fruit production and compare their performance with suitable controls. The results need to be reliable enough to distinguish genuine genetic improvements from differences caused by growing conditions or experimental error.
NIFOR has a long history of work in this area. Its institutional information describes a breeding programme that developed the Tenera hybrid, produced through crossing Dura and Pisifera palms. The institute says the resulting planting material has played an important role in the development of improved oil palm cultivation.
According to NIFOR, its breeding programme has recorded substantial yield improvements over unimproved palms, demonstrating the importance of selecting suitable planting materials. The institute also reports a production capacity of approximately 10 million Tenera hybrid seeds annually. These figures describe the institute’s stated capacity and research history; they should not be interpreted as proof that every farmer currently has access to the planting materials required. Source: NIFOR oil palm research.
The latest call by breeding experts builds on that foundation. Modern biotechnology could complement conventional selection, helping researchers investigate specific traits while retaining the broader process of evaluating plants for agricultural performance.
The two approaches need not be viewed as competitors. Conventional breeding can combine complex characteristics and assess whole-plant performance, while gene-editing tools may offer additional ways to study or alter particular genetic features.
The appropriate approach will depend on the trait being targeted, the available scientific evidence, the resources required and the regulatory pathway for any resulting planting material.
Research land and field management remain major constraints
The experts also warned that research infrastructure and field management are essential to successful breeding programmes.
Singh identified limited land availability as a major constraint because oil palm breeding requires extensive space for progeny trials. Compared with some shorter-cycle crops, oil palm research may involve large numbers of trees that need to be observed over extended periods.
Researchers must establish trials that allow plants to be compared fairly and monitored accurately. When suitable land is unavailable, the size, design or duration of experiments may be constrained, slowing the process of identifying improved varieties.
Singh encouraged collaboration between research institutions and commercial plantations so that researchers could share trial sites and other resources.
Such partnerships could provide access to additional growing environments and help researchers evaluate promising planting materials under conditions closer to commercial production. They could also create opportunities for growers to contribute practical experience to research planning.
However, collaboration would need clear agreements covering responsibilities, data management, trial design, access to facilities and the handling of planting materials. Research findings must remain reliable even when experiments take place across different locations.
Bakoume separately emphasised the importance of proper field supervision, accurate seedling labelling, systematic record keeping and field mapping. He warned that mistakes during seedling distribution and transplantation could create discrepancies in progeny numbers and compromise research findings.
These procedures may appear routine, but they are essential to scientific reliability. If a plant is incorrectly labelled or its identity is lost, researchers may be unable to connect its observed performance to the correct parentage or treatment.
Errors can also complicate the comparison of results across trials and delay the identification of promising planting material.
For a crop with a long development cycle, poor record keeping can waste valuable time and resources. Strong field management is therefore not simply an administrative requirement; it is part of the scientific infrastructure needed to deliver better varieties.
Sources: AgroNigeria; Prime Post/NAN.
What Nigeria’s biosafety rules mean for gene editing
The prospect of developing gene-edited oil palm varieties also raises questions about biosafety, regulatory approval and the eventual release of improved planting materials.
Nigeria has a statutory framework for regulating modern biotechnology through the National Biosafety Management Agency. The agency was established under the National Biosafety Management Agency Act of 2015, which was amended in 2019 to broaden its scope to include emerging areas of biotechnology, including gene editing.
The agency publishes national biosafety guidelines on gene editing and other instruments intended to guide the handling and assessment of biotechnology applications. Its framework is designed to address potential effects on human health, animals, plants and the environment. Sources: NBMA; National Biosafety Guidelines.
The regulatory implications of a particular gene-editing project will depend on the technology used, the nature of the resulting plant and the applicable requirements. It would therefore be premature to assume that every gene-edited oil palm would automatically receive approval or be treated identically under the law.
Researchers and developers need to determine the relevant regulatory pathway early in the development process. That can help clarify what information must be supplied, which assessments are required and what conditions would apply before any proposed planting material could be released.
Biosafety assessment is important because a desirable agricultural trait must be considered alongside possible unintended effects. Evaluations may need to address plant characteristics, environmental interactions and other risks relevant to the particular product.
Transparency is also important for public confidence. Clear explanations of the research objective, the method used, the evidence available and the applicable oversight process can help farmers, consumers and other stakeholders understand what is being developed.
The challenge is to create conditions in which credible scientific research can proceed while ensuring that health and environmental safeguards are applied consistently.
The experts’ call for gene editing should therefore be understood as a proposal to expand the tools available to plant breeders, not as an announcement that a new commercial product has already cleared the necessary scientific and regulatory stages.
Turning scientific advances into benefits for farmers
Even if researchers develop improved oil palm varieties, the benefits will not automatically reach farmers.
The next stages would include validating the plants’ performance, establishing reliable methods for multiplying and distributing planting materials, and ensuring that farmers can obtain them at prices consistent with the expected returns.
Farmers also need guidance on nursery management, land preparation, planting density, fertiliser application, pest management and harvesting. Improved genetic potential can be lost if planting materials are poorly handled or field management is inadequate.
NIFOR says it supports growers through seed and seedling production, training and extension activities. The institute’s work includes developing planting materials and providing technical information to farmers and other stakeholders. Source: NIFOR.
Expanding those services would be important if future breeding advances are to reach a broad range of producers rather than remaining confined to research stations or large plantations.
Smallholders may face particular difficulties in financing plantation establishment because oil palm requires a long-term commitment before the investment reaches its full productive potential. Affordable credit and suitable financing arrangements can help farmers cover initial expenses and maintain their farms while palms mature.
Access to reliable markets is equally important. Farmers are more likely to invest in improved planting materials when they have confidence that harvested fruit can be sold at prices that justify the costs of production.
Processing capacity can determine how much value growers retain from their harvest. If fruit cannot be transported and processed efficiently, quality and commercial returns may suffer.
Improved varieties must therefore be integrated into a functioning agricultural value chain that includes inputs, finance, extension, harvesting, processing, transport and buyers.
The role of public and private investment
The experts’ recommendations point to a need for sustained investment in agricultural research.
Developing improved perennial crops can require specialist scientists, laboratory equipment, experimental land, long-term field trials and reliable data-management systems. These activities cannot always be funded adequately through short-term projects because the research cycle may extend across several years.
Public institutions such as NIFOR have a role in maintaining breeding programmes, developing suitable planting materials and generating knowledge that benefits the wider industry.
Universities and other research organisations can contribute expertise in genetics, biotechnology, plant physiology, agronomy and environmental assessment. Private plantations may offer additional trial sites, commercial experience and routes for testing improved varieties under production conditions.
A well-designed partnership could combine those strengths while protecting scientific independence and ensuring that research findings are documented and shared appropriately.
Investment would also be needed beyond the laboratory. Nurseries, seed production facilities, farmer training and processing infrastructure are essential parts of the pathway from scientific discovery to commercial adoption.
For policymakers, the issue is not simply whether gene-editing technology should be used. It is how Nigeria can build a research and agricultural system capable of identifying worthwhile innovations, testing them rigorously and delivering practical benefits to producers.
The long-term return would depend on the quality of the research, the relevance of the traits selected and the ability of farmers and processors to use the resulting planting materials effectively.
What the proposal means for Nigeria’s oil palm future
The latest recommendations from oil palm breeding experts underline the importance of connecting agricultural research with the practical challenges facing farmers.
Drought tolerance could help address some climate-related risks. More manageable palm height could make harvesting easier. Changes in fatty acid composition could offer opportunities for specialised uses of palm oil. But each proposed improvement would require careful development and testing before its real-world value could be established.
The experts also highlighted constraints that technology alone cannot solve, including limited research land, the need for stronger collaboration between research institutions and plantations, and the importance of accurate field records.
These considerations matter because oil palm improvement is a long-term undertaking. Researchers must be able to track plants reliably, compare performance across environments and provide evidence that new planting materials deliver meaningful benefits.
Nigeria already has an established oil palm research institution and a history of breeding work. The challenge is to build on that foundation while making appropriate use of new scientific tools and maintaining robust biosafety oversight.
For farmers, the ultimate test will be whether improved planting materials help raise productive output, reduce avoidable losses or make plantation management more efficient without introducing unacceptable risks or costs.
For processors and manufacturers, the value will depend on the quality, consistency and availability of raw materials. For government and research institutions, success will require sustained funding, credible evaluation and effective systems for distributing knowledge and planting materials.
The experts have not presented gene editing as a substitute for good farming, reliable infrastructure or agricultural investment. Rather, they have identified it as a potential addition to the tools available for crop improvement.
If the research is pursued carefully and supported by strong field trials, regulatory oversight and farmer-focused extension, it could contribute to the gradual development of oil palm varieties better suited to Nigeria’s agricultural and industrial needs.
The next step is to translate the recommendations into clearly defined research priorities, collaborative trials and evidence-based decisions about which innovations offer the greatest practical value.
Ultimately, the promise of modern biotechnology will be measured not by the novelty of the techniques but by whether the resulting improvements can be demonstrated in the field, delivered responsibly and made accessible to the farmers and businesses that sustain the oil palm industry.
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