PALMOILMAGAZINE, PASER – Politeknik Citra Widya Edukasi (Poltek CWE) will conduct a harvest and post-harvest training program to enhance human resource competency in the 2024 palm oil plantation sector. This initiative is supported by the Palm Oil Plantation Fund Management Agency (PFMA) and the Directorate General of Plantations at the Ministry of Agriculture.
The training will take place over five days, from Monday, May 13 to Friday, May 17, 2024, at Hotel Gran Senyiur in Balikpapan. Seventy-one smallholders from various villages in Paser Regency, East Kalimantan Province, will participate. These villages include Bukit Seloka, Seniung Jaya, Tajur, Suliliran, Sepurau Jaya, Jone, Tanah Priuk, and Gunung Mulia.
The opening ceremony was attended by several key figures, including Nugroho Kristono, Director of Poltek CWE, Eva Lizarmi, Chairman of the Secretariat Team for Human Resource Development in the Palm Oil Plantation Sector (SDMPKS) at the Directorate General of Plantations, Ministry of Agriculture, Djoko Bawono, Head of the Plantation and Livestock Agency of Paser Regency, and representatives from the East Kalimantan Plantation Agency.
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In his speech, Nugroho Kristono stated that the palm oil industry faces challenges that require collaboration across multiple sectors, following the Penta helix concept, which involves cooperation among the government, industries, educational institutions, civil organizations, and the mass media. He emphasized the importance of interaction between senior practitioners and younger participants in the training to enhance the smallholders’ knowledge and skills.
The training will cover harvest and post-harvest aspects, focusing on fresh fruit bunch (FFB) traceability to achieve sustainable palm oil certification. Kristono also noted that while the material might be familiar to the smallholders, it needs to be updated with the latest information to improve quality and plantation productivity.
Djoko Bawono highlighted that palm oil is a dominant commodity in the regency, with plantations covering approximately 250,000 hectares, including around 90,000 hectares managed by independent smallholders.
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“It is hoped that the training would escalate the smallholders’ knowledge and palm oil plantation production and productivity would be more qualified and be competitive,” he said, as in the official statement to Palmoilmagazine.com, Tuesday (14/5/2024).
Representing Director of Plantation Protection General Directorate of Plantation, , Eva Lizarmi did appreciate the training as the significant thing to escalate crude palm oil (CPO) quality. She also emphasized, it would be important to reinforce smallholders’ institution to escalate their bargaining position to decide the price and solve other issues.
Eva continued palm oil sustainability would be aimed not only to welfare the smallholders but also for getting more competent successors. She hoped the smallholders would implement their knowledge they got in the training and informed others who did not join it.
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Nametag was symbolically handed over to the participants by Djpko and Kristono. It was the meaning to the opening ceremony. The participants, such as, Surman and Pricilia Pricilia Anyelina Daro hoped that they would get practical knowledge that would be implemented in their plantations to escalate CPO quality and be the agents of change in their communities.
The first day – training was ended by handing over plague of reward from Kristono to Djoko and Plantation Agency of East Kalimantan Province. This week, the training should run well and significantly deliver advantages for the smallholders in Regency of Paser, and escalate plantation productivity in the province in a whole. (T2)
