PALMOILMAGAZINE, BUOL Landowners participating in the plasma program for palm oil plantations in the Buol District of Central Sulawesi are contemplating a significant move by discontinuing their involvement in the program. They perceive the ten-year collaboration with PT. Hardaya Inti Plantations (PT. HIP) as a financial loss.
In a statement released on Monday, January 8, 2024, the Forum Petani Plasma Buol (FPPB) expressed dissatisfaction, asserting that the primary plasma partnership has resulted in losses for landowners and appears to involve land grabbing under the guise of partnership or cooperation.
According to FPPB, the cooperation has spanned over 16 years, engaging 4,934 individuals with a total land area of approximately 6,746 hectares. Despite the plasma plantations yielding hundreds of tons of fresh fruit bunches daily, landowners claim they have not received any profit sharing but instead have incurred significant debts exceeding Rp 590 billion.
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FPPB also told plasma plantation cultivation by PT. HIP through a one-stop service, making the landowners not involved in the cultivation. They have no access to information about the development, nursery, and harvest. Besides, the coordinators of cooperation are not transparent and do not support the members as landowners.
As Palmoilmagazine.com quoted Radar Sulteng, the landowners joining FPPB decided to stop the plasma operation as a protest of unfair treatment in cooperation with PT.HIP. They hoped to negotiate directly with PT. Hip to discuss partnerships and fully get their rights.
“If our protests were ignored, as land owners, we plan to get back our areas and our certificates that PT. HIP still holds and stop the cooperation,” FPPB noted.
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Though the landowners tried to fight for their rights, it was said that PT. Hip tried to seduce the coordinators of the cooperation to stop the landowners’ action by promising gifts. Some reports say that those who claimed to be police officers tried to prevent landowners from making plasma operational.
FPPB felt sorry for what PT. HIP did, which used power and took security officers to solve the partnership issue. They suggested the police officers understand the main plasma partnership fairly and should not easily get into the conflict.
FPPB is committed to cooperating to struggle for their rights and getting support from many. They also hoped the partnership issue would have a fair and transparent solution, confirming that the smallholders (as landowners) would get their rights and support sustainability in the palm oil sector in the District of Buol.
The partnership issue in Buol would be a serious one and would need special attention from many related parties to get a peaceful and fair solution. (T2)
