Plant scientist Meilina Ong Abdullah treads between neat rows of young palms and points to a petite variety that she says may help revolutionize a $19 billion Malaysian export crop.

Why data could be the deciding factor in Africa’s agricultural transformation. The world has a palm oil problem.

Palm oil of any kind, whether it be from the fruit or kernel is not beneficial to the Earth or human health.

If a tree falls in the forest, will another replace it?

Of the roughly 3 million square kilometers of forest lost worldwide from 2001 to 2015, a new analysis suggests that 27 percent of that loss was permanent — the result of land being converted for industrial agriculture to meet global demand for products such as soy, timber, beef and palm oil.

The palm oil market size in Africa is estimated at $8.2B in 2018, an increase of 3.7% against the previous year.

Accounting for roughly one-third of the world’s annual vegetable oil production, palm oil — cultivated in the Asian, African and Latin American tropics — constitutes the most widely consumed, traded and high-yielding vegetable oil commodity in the world.

Palm oil is everywhere today: in food, soap, lipstick, even newspaper ink. It's been called the world's most hated crop because of its association with deforestation in Southeast Asia. But despite boycott campaigns, the world uses more palm oil than any other vegetable oil - over 73 million tons in 2020.

A ban on agricultural exports is never desirable, especially by a major player in agricultural markets. Unfortunately, such practices have been common since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war more recently.

The world has been in a period of surging food prices for several reasons.

The palm oil boom that took hold in the late 1980s and 1990s in Malaysia and Indonesia has now replaced vast areas of biodiverse, tropical rainforest and peatland with oil palm monocultures: regimented rows of trees, usually kept bare of other vegetation with chemicals.

Palm trees grace the landscape across Africa, thriving in environments as diverse as deserts and rainforests. Central Africa holds the richest variety, home to 52 species, while west Africa has 38 and east Africa 18. They form part of a global family of 2,600 palm species.