PALMOILMAGAZINE, JAKARTA – In a bid to enhance the efficiency of palm oil plantations and boost planters’ income, the Ministry of Agriculture, in collaboration with the General Directorate of Plantation and the General Directorate of Food Plantation, has initiated the Kelapa Sawit Tumpang Sari Tanaman Pangan (Kesatria) Program.
This program specifically emphasizes the cultivation of paddy gogo and corn alongside palm oil trees as part of the replanting effort.
In 2024, the intercrop program aims to cover 120,000 hectares, with 80,000 hectares managed through government agencies at the regency level and 40,000 hectares through partnerships. The General Directorate of Plantation has identified that a total of 500,000 hectares have the potential for intercropping, with 200,000 hectares designated for palm oil and 300,000 hectares for intercrops such as paddy gogo in dry palm oil plantations.
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Vice Minister of Agriculture, Harvick Hasnul Qolbi, commended the efforts towards palm oil intercropping and deliberated on the potential impacts of El Nino. He expressed confidence that this initiative would strengthen the productivity and production of palm oil plantations in Indonesia.
Harvick thought the acceleration of palm oil intercrop program should be supported by many parties to escalate production, additional values, competition in palm oil industries in Indonesia.
He also told, every party should be committed and in synergy to struggle for palm oil industrial power in the future. “Palm oil massively delivers advantages and the struggle should also deliver profits for the people,” he said, as Palmoilmagazine.com quoted from official page of General Directorate of Plantation, (6/3/2024).
To reinforce the cooperation and synergy among Ministry of Agriculture and other stakeholders, Harvick did sign memorandum of understanding (MoU) about smallholders replanting program (SRP) acceleration, such as, with PalmCo that would cover about 5000 hectares, with SupportingCo about 10.000 hectares, with Indonesian Palm Oil Association (IPOA) about 3.550,77 hectares, APKASINDO about 67.400,00 hectares, and ASPEKPIR about 5.013,00 hectares to realize food independency and security.
General Directorate of Plantation did hand over awards to its partners for supporting sustainable palm oil plantations, including the police and regional governments for having active roles to encourage palm oil intercrop program.
Not only that, the institution handed over award for Regent in duty of Ogan Komering Ilir for his performance to get the widest technical recommendation criteria in 2017 to 2023 that covered 36.252 hectares from 47 proposals/institutions that involved 14.812 planters and Kelompok Tani Neglasari, Regency of Pandeglang, for its performance by realizing paddy gogo intercrops.
General Director of Plantation, Andi Nur Alam Syah told SRP faces challenges including area legal and business rights but his institution is committed to get the right solution to solve them both by reinforcing regulations, establishing task force, and having good cooperation with many parties.
By having good collaboration among Ministry of Agriculture, General Directorate of Plantations and other stakeholders, it is hoped that palm oil intercrop program would be the strategic thing to escalate palm oil plantation productivity in Indonesia. (T2)
