PALMOILMAGAZINE, PEKANBARU – On Monday, September 18, 2023, the General Director of Plantation at the Ministry of Agriculture, Andi Nur Alam Syah, paid a visit to the office of the Riau Governor. The purpose of this meeting was to discuss the Smallholders Replanting Program (SRP) in the province known as “Bumi Lancang Kuning.”
Governor of Riau, Syamsuar supported to take for advantage the potential in the province. He hoped the plantations taken as smallholders’ ownership in forest regions would be not categorized as forest regions or needed to change the status.
Andi Nur Alam Syah emphasized that the primary objective of the meeting was to address the implementation of SRP through partnerships aimed at sustaining palm oil plantations and increasing their production in the province. He also highlighted that this collaboration would play a crucial role in supporting the palm oil sector in Riau.
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According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, in 2022, palm oil plantations in Indonesia covered approximately 14.99 million hectares, with 19 percent of them located in Riau. Despite being the largest palm oil producer in Indonesia, many plantations in the province are now more than 20 to 25 years old.
Andi Nur Alam Syah remarked, “It is time to implement the SRP,” as reported by Palmoilmagazine.com, citing the official page of Riau Province on Tuesday, August 19, 2023.
He continued, his part decided 2023 SRP targets that should lay about 20 thuosand hectares in many ways, including having partnership with companies, the government, and private. In Riau, the target would lay 10 thousand hectares. The program would run by having cooperation with agency besides partnership.
He also emphasized that policy regulates that smallholders and plantations should immediately propose to get SRP but some issues still raise such as, the plantations are in forest regions that postpone to get SRP.
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That is why he said that it is significant to get solution on the issues and hoped that Ministry of Environment and Forestry could deal, check, confirm that smallholders’ plantations in forest regions could get SRP.
If the plantations in forest regions and not qualifying the terms and conditions, his part would not distribute fund. That is why coordination among Plantation Agency Riau Province, Ministry of Environment and Forestry, and central government would be the key to solve the issues. (T2)
