Challenges in Managing Ganoderma Boninense Disease among Oil Palm Smallholders

Ganoderma is the primary causal agent of Basal Stem Rot (BSR), a disease responsible for yield losses and economic damage in Malaysia and Indonesia. The fungus infects oil palm through root contact with contaminated soil or infected plant residues and progressively degrades lignin, leading to plant death. The difficulty of early detection and the lack of a fully effective control method further intensify the impact of this disease on oil palm plantations. The study aims to identify Ganoderma infection levels in oil palm fields, identify the current agricultural practices used by smallholders to manage Ganoderma disease, and determine the relationship between knowledge and awareness, financial constraints, labour availability, and farm practices and oil palm yield in managing Ganoderma infection. The quantitative methodology was applied in a structured questionnaire that was given to 150 oil palm smallholders from 245 population through simple random sampling. The descriptive analysis revealed that most respondents reported a moderate level of Ganoderma infection on scale 3, which recorded the highest frequency by a large margin. Most respondents agreed that applying fungicides or trunk injections is commonly not implemented in their management of Ganoderma when infection is detected. The current agricultural practices that are applied are proper disposal of infected palm materials in the field. The correlation analysis conducted by Spearman indicated that oil palm yield and knowledge and awareness, financial considerations, availability of labour, and farm practices showed moderate positive correlations at the 0.01 level of significance. The results indicate that improvements in knowledge and awareness, financial capacity, labour availability, and farm management practices are associated with better oil palm yield.