*Management and Processing of Palm Oil (*Elaeis guineensis *Jacq): The Crop for Future DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.108579*

spike or spadix carried on a stout peduncle and bears two large inflated bracts (spathes) that enclose the whole inflorescence. The inflorescences of both sexes are a compound spadix with 100–200 branches initially enclosed in a spathe or bract that splits 2 weeks prior to anthesis [8]. Palm oil is primarily pollinated by various insects [9] *viz.,* weevil (*Elaeidobius* spp.) in Africa and *Mystrops costaricensis* and *Elaeidobius* spp. in Latin America. The African pollinating species *Elaeidobius kamerunicus* was introduced from Africa into the palm oil-growing regions of Asia and the Pacific in the early 1980s. These introduced weevils have assisted a lot in the successful pollination of palm oil and significantly improved the fruit set thereby increasing the yield [10, 11].

Palm oil fruit is a sessile drupe and borne on a large, compact bunch, varying in shape from nearly spherical to ovoid or elongate, and is 2–5 cm long and weighs about 3–30 g. The fruit pulp, which provides palm oil, surrounds a nut, the shell of which encloses the palm kernel. The seeding radical grows at a rate of about 4.5 mm/day to a maximum length of about 50 cm [12]. Purvis [13] observed roots penetrating down to a depth of about 3.0 m in Nigeria, while Jordan and Rey [12] observed primary roots extending to a depth of about 6.0 m in the *Cote d' Ivorie*.
