PALMOILMAGAZINE, RIAU – After handing over the Agricola Medal award from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to Indonesian President Joko Widodo (Jokowi), Friday (30/08) in Jakarta. The Ministry of Agriculture invited the Director General of FAO, Qu Dongyu to visit one of the oil palm plantations in Riau.
Qu Dongyu was accompanied by the Director General of Plantations, Heru Tri Widarto, along with the Director of Oil Palm and Various Palms, Ardi Pratono, and the Director of Processing and Marketing of Plantation Products, Prayudi Syamsuri. This visit is one of the efforts to encourage Sustainable Palm Oil Plantation Governance.
Previously, Qu Dongyu had said that Indonesia has shown rapid progress in transforming the agricultural system by implementing the principles of sustainable agricultural development, even when the world is facing various global challenges, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sustainable Palm Oil Plantation Governance is a commitment of the Indonesian Government in improving the competitiveness of palm oil in the world market. The palm oil industry has a very strategic role as one of the largest producers of foreign exchange. In addition, the palm oil industry can absorb labor and drive the people’s economic sector.
Minister of Agriculture Andi Amran Sulaiman, some time ago revealed, the power of food is in Indonesia, and so is biodiesel in Indonesia. This is a great potential that must be managed well. Indonesia is becoming a food barn and energy-independent. The government has initiated the use of palm oil in the biodiesel program since 2019.
Director General of Plantations, Heru Tri Widarto said, currently the palm oil industry makes a very large contribution, with a national oil palm plantation area reaching 16.38 million hectares, capable of producing 48 million tons of CPO which is used as food, chemicals/oleochemicals, and renewable fuels/biodiesel domestically and abroad.
“In the future, the challenge of national palm oil development is not only about palm oil productivity, but how we must continue to improve and maintain consistency, quantity, quality, and continuity. In addition, the fulfillment of ISPO standards has become the world’s attention in the aspect of sustainability which certainly greatly affects the competitiveness of palm oil in the international world,” Heru said as quoted by Palmoilmagazine.com from the official website of the Ministry of Agriculture.
On this visit, a review was carried out to the oil palm plantation to introduce the fruit bunches, harvesting tools, and the harvesting process, which was continued to the Andalas Research Center to introduce the results of research on plantation products such as pest medicines, fertilizers and so on. The last location is the Conservation Area to introduce conservation management which is an effort to preserve natural ecosystems, while preserving biodiversity as a contribution to the management of broadly responsible palm oil.
For information, Palm Oil Plantation Business Players are currently focused on achieving sustainability goals and strategies by 2024 through the Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO) as an effort to harmonize with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Indicators.
The Indonesian government is committed to ensuring the sustainability of Indonesian palm oil plantations, by developing the National Dashboard (ND) which is a blockchain-based information system in tracing every palm oil chain from upstream to downstream. The ND system will serve as the main database in integrating geolocation information from e-STDB for smallholders, and Siperibun for companies.
“I hope that stakeholders who understand the condition of Indonesia’s oil palm plantations can work together and take an active role in supporting programs carried out by the Government to encourage Sustainable Palm Oil Plantation Governance,” Heru hoped. (P3)
