PALMOILMAGAZINE, JAKARTA – The issues surrounding palm oil plantations in Indonesia persist despite changes in leadership. However, there is a continued push to address these issues. With the election of President Prabowo Subianto, there is optimism for improving the governance of smallholder palm oil plantations in the future.
Professor Rachmat Pambudi from Institut Pertanian Bogor (IPB) University, also the coordinator of Himpunan Kerukunan Tani Indonesia (HKTI), emphasized that the new government should take specific actions to address challenges in the palm oil sector.
Key actions include urging the National Land Agency to expedite the issuance of land certificates for smallholders. Additionally, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry should recognize palm oil plantations that have been established since 2020.
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Professor Pambudi stressed the importance of implementing mandatory replanting for plantations where productivity falls below 1.2 tons of fresh fruit bunch (FFB) per hectare per month or yields less than 3 tons of crude palm oil per hectare per year.
“Conduct a replanting program for the plantations their production was only reaching 0.4–0.7 tons of FFB per hectare per month. This could be covering about 3,2 million hectares, and 1,6 million hectares were categorized as old and immature plants,” Prof. Rachmat said in a discussion in Jakarta that Palmoilmagazine.com attended on Thursday, July 4, 2024.
To support and encourage the replanting program, he suggested to utilize the fund from Palm Oil Plantation Fund Management Agency and escalate cost fund in smallholders’ replanting program from Rp 30 million per hectare to be Rp 60 million per hectare. Besides, he also suggested, the program should be synchronized with Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO) certificate.
He also encouraged the grade A – cooperation to immediately construct palm cooking oil mill or pabrik minyak goreng (PAMIGO) to fulfill the needs for Minyakita (program). Besides, it would be important to involve the smallholders before publishing new regulations. He suggested to revise ISPO President’s Regulation which the content could be relative; the Regulation of Minister of Agriculture Number 1 / 2018 about FFB Governance which protects plasma smallholders only while the independent smallholders go not get the same protection.
National Strategic Program about palm oil should also deliver affirmation for the smallholders namely who join replanting program. “84% smallholders failed to propose replanting program because Ministry of Environment and Forestry, and National Land Agency do intervene,” he said.
By sharing the hopes and suggestion, it is hoped palm oil plantation governance in Indonesia would be better in the leadership of the next President Prabowo Subianto. (T2)
