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Due to rapid increase in the world population and demand for dietary oils coupled with the biofuel movement, oil palm cultivation will continue to expand in order to meet increasing global demands for vegetable oils. Rapid expansion of the industry based in tropical Asia, Africa, and America presents many opportunities. Enhancing oil palm production by increasing the availability of cultivated land has limited options. An alternative is to increase productivity per unit land area by breeding and generating superior individuals with improved productivity and stability. Morphological and agronomic features cannot be exclusively relied upon for sustainable production. Hence, the need for sustainable multivariate traditional and modern breeding approaches that take into account the welfare and contribution of stakeholders and innovative developments in crop production/protection concepts. Prospection and germplasm collection of oil palms are essential to conserving genetic resources, broadening the genetic base of breeding material toward raising yields, improving oil quality, and tackling future challenges facing the industry. The integration of traditional breeding approaches with modern techniques like micropropagation, genomics, and genetic engineering as well as benchmarking from success stories constitute the best approach toward sustainable production.

Palm oil from Elaeis guineensis Jacq. of the Arecaceae family is the main traditional cooking oil in most parts of tropical Africa. Oil palm cultivation requires large areas of land and the consumption of crude palm oil from it raises health concerns notably with regards to the incidence of cardiovascular disease and obesity. The industry has therefore been faced with two major controversies. Firstly, palm oil which contains about 50% saturated fatty acids is considered to be unhealthy for human consumption because its saturated fatty acids raise blood LDL cholesterol level and increase the risk of the above mentioned diseases. Secondly, due to its land intensive nature, the oil palm industry is linked to deforestation, climate change and socioeconomic instability. For these reasons, the oil palm industry has been at the forefront of environmental and reputational challenges. This paper briefly presents an overview of these controversies surrounding the oil palm industry, while highlighting the possible outlets for environmentally friendly production processes and improvement strategies for better oil quality.