New research uncovers extensive oil palm challenging assumptions about food security

Researchers have identified 6.5 million hectares of previously unrecorded oil palm growing wild, semi-wild and in gardens, across Africa—an area three times larger than all African commercial plantations combined.

The study, published in Environmental Research: Food Systems, analysed 11,800 high-resolution satellite images to map non-plantation oil palm that official statistics miss entirely. Unlike commercial plantations with their orderly rows, these palms grow scattered amongst other trees and crops, making them nearly invisible to conventional monitoring.

"Most oil palm in Africa actually grows outside plantations in wild and semi-wild contexts, often near villages," said lead researcher Dr Adrià Descals from the University of Antwerp. "This resource has been largely invisible to official observation until now."

The research found non-plantation oil palm near 79% of villages in Congo's rainforests and over half of villages in West Africa. The Democratic Republic of Congo contains the largest area at 2.5 million hectares, followed by Nigeria with 1.9 million hectares.

These findings have significant implications for understanding food security in Africa. Red palm oil is a traditional ingredient providing essential fats and vitamins that many African diets currently lack. The discovery suggests the nutritional "fat gap" may be less severe than previously thought, though further research is needed to determine how much of this wild oil palm contributes to people's diets.

"Official agricultural statistics focus on commercial plantations and miss important subsistence farming and wild food sources," said co-author Professor Douglas Sheil from Wageningen University. "Understanding these food systems better could inform policies on food security and development."

The research used visual interpretation of sub-meter resolution satellite imagery, cross-checking their findings across multiple validation points to ensure accuracy.