PALMOILMAGAZINE, JAKARTA – Since the commercial cultivation of palm oil began in 1911, Indonesia’s palm oil plantations have made significant progress. During the colonial era, these plantations gained importance as part of the global vegetable oil market.
As of 2022, the palm oil industry in Indonesia has been commercially active for 111 years—a milestone marked by the unique number sequence “111.” Despite the industry’s long history, there is still much work to be done, particularly in smallholder plantations.
According to data from Indonesia’s Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs, by the end of 2023, palm oil plantations covered approximately 15.32 million hectares nationwide. Smallholders accounted for about 40.51% of this area, or around 6.21 million hectares. In 2022, smallholder plantations were estimated to have produced over 16 million tons of palm oil.
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To escalate the smallholders’ plantation productivity, the Government of Indonesia encouraged to get smallholders replanting program (SRP) for every smallholder in this country. For information, in 2017 to 2023, the main smallholders that got or implemented SRP covered 306 thousand hectares, theirs covered 134 thousand hectares with the total fund distributed reached Rp. 8,5 trillion.
Here are the roles of the people who work as smallholders to get escalated. Since in the midst of 1980s, the people’s empowerment had been popularized in Indonesia. It was perkebunan inti rakyat with transmigration system (PIR-Trans). The roles of plantation companies as avails in the partnership with smallholders faced new challenges.
Even though (people’s) empowerment was taken as a developing concept of thought since 1970s, it just developed together with other thoughts, such as, existentialism, , phenomenology, personalism, and other social critics. These made (people’s) empowerment was closer to neo-Marxism, Freudianism, Structuralism, and sociology critics by Frankfurt School.
That is why the concept of (people’s) empowerment has melted to be once concept universally with the goal to minimize poverty. It has been adopted by the government’s instituatio around the world including in Indonesia. Through the smallholders’ empowerment with multi-party supports, there would be welfare for smallholders in the future.
The Government of Indonesia by publishing policies, wanted to confirm the regulations to empower smallholders to get legal certainty. Palm oil plantation companies through their equal, transparent partnerships would take the smallholders to implement the best and sustainable cultivation practices. The banks through their financial liquidity, would confirm fund supports for the sustainable smallholders and their associations, non-government organizations, and other parties to deliver helps and other supports.
Palmoilmagazine.com would also play its roles as the communication media to effectively deliver information for other related stakeholders to be in synergy to develop smallholders’ palm oil plantations. Palmoilmagazine.com would help confirm that there would be no parties left behind so that every party would collaborate to develop the smallholders’ plantations.
