PALMOILMAGAZINE, JAKARTA – The transformation of villagers, previously limited by facilities, has been remarkable due to improved economic opportunities from FFB (Fresh Fruit Bunch) trading. With rising living standards, there’s a shift towards a more consumerist lifestyle, which may become unsustainable.
Increased income has led some individuals to seek loans from financial institutions like banks or online lenders, banking on future palm oil harvests to repay these debts. However, this strategy often backfires, leading to financial distress.
Inability to repay loans has raised concerns among debt collectors, prompting desperate measures such as theft of FFB from plantations not owned by the perpetrators. These thefts typically target plantations belonging to companies known for higher yields and better nursery standards.
To prevent FFB theft, villagers must exercise financial prudence, prioritizing essential needs over luxuries and aligning expenditures with their income. Smart smallholders can allocate a portion of FFB earnings for savings and investment, such as acquiring new land for palm oil cultivation or purchasing fertilizers.
By adopting these strategies, villagers can address financial challenges and promote economic sustainability in their communities. Additionally, government transmigration programs aim to equalize economic opportunities by providing housing and plantation facilities in remote areas, encouraging newcomers to engage in farming activities, including palm oil cultivation.
Planting palm oil plantations successfully deliver the positive namely because of the new investors invested in the region, establishing mill. These also change the transmigrators’ lives drastically. But the era changes – from Orde Baru to Reformasi. Every era has the new issues, such as, primordial and regional autonomy. Such issues made the local youth the prior to develop the region. The transmigrators that got better from transmigration program would be the target of jealousy because the local does not get better as same as them. The jealousy could disturb the social balance in the region.
That is why it needs understanding and dialogue between transmigrators and local people to develop harmonious relationship and cooperation to face social and economic changes. The government and related parties should implement fair policy(ies) to prevent social jealousy that would end by FFB stealing and other security issues.
The jealousy could also raise from the successful transmigrators that have been in partnership that is managed by plasma cooperation with plantation companies. The plasma partnership is successfully established and productive. Some issues were blown up to bother plantation company operational. The issues could be indigenous land, inheritaged land by the elders, not hiring the local, broken ways, and no corporate social program to environment. Such issues were the tools to press the company to fulfill what the villagers demanded.
To face the claims many local villagers did action to master the plantations of the company. If their claims were not fulfilled, the action could be FFB stealing and pillage that obviously be done by the local. The irony is that the action was controlled by intellectual from the local who is clever and might have his own interests.
FFB pillage and stealing are always led to peron. After FFB was collected, they would take it by vehicles and re-sell to the mill that plantation company has.
By: Edwin Leonardo Armay/Palm oil plantation practitioner
