Résumé
Indonesia recently pledged to become a major global food producer by boosting the production of food commodities. Palm oil is one of the 10 strategic and key commodities that are part of the government's 2009 - 2014 road-map for food development. Domestic palm oil producers are being encouraged to expand their plantations from the current 7.9 million hectares in 2009 to 9.7 million hectares by 2015. Indonesia goal is to boost CPO production to 36.6 million tonnes per year (Maulia, 2010). The apparent stagnation of long term palm oil yield trends in the dominant producing countries, such as Malaysia and Indonesia, is considered a vital concern for the oil palm industry and this new agenda makes the intensification of plantation efficiency more necessary, in the context of sustainable palm oil production. Planting material quality has been recognised as a key input for oil palm sustainability. Where the technical efficiency of growers in all the best management practices (BMPs) is optimum, yield enhancement through the improvement of planting materials will remain the main source of economic progress or sustainability (Baskett et al., 2008). The most recent results from the PT Socfindo Aek Loba Timur Breeding project and their transfer to the commercial plantations accompanied by a stringent selection of the best parental families with a 10 tonnes Total Oil/ha/year target, are presented. New developments in the PT Socfindo Research & Development programmes such as the implementation of a new selection cycle evaluating the whole parental collection and a new seed garden at the Aek Loba Estate, the development of an early test as a key input in breeding for Ganoderma resistance, or the medium-term search for high-yielding planting material less demanding in fertilizer input are also discussed. (Résumé d'auteur)