Oil palm production with reduced economic costs and environmental impacts through the use of rhizobacteria

The oil palm seedling production system is one of the stages with the highest production cost due to the long nursery period and the high use of chemical fertilizers. In this context, the insertion of rhizobacteria appears as a technology that can reduce the average cost of seedling production. The objective was to study the economic efficiency of the production of oil palm seedlings, as a function of inoculation with Bacillus amyloliquefaciens UFRAB01, compared to the conventional system of synthetic fertilizers. The study showed that the adoption of the technology allowed a reduction of 11.04% in the cost of each seedling produced. The production of palm seedlings with microbial technology is economically viable, as it allows the production of high quality seedlings, in 2 months less in the nursery time, with a reduction in the use of synthetic fertilizers by half and in 11% reduction in average cost compared to conventional management.