PALMOILMAGAZINE, MEDAN – The Palm Oil Plantation Fund Management Agency (PFMA) and the General Directorate of Plantations, Ministry of Agriculture, once again entrusted IPB Training to conduct technical training on palm oil cultivation in North Sumatera Province.
The objective was to enhance the understanding, competency, and capabilities of smallholders in palm oil cultivation.
The training, held from June 10 to 14, 2024, at Hotel GranDhika Setiabudi Medan, North Sumatra, saw the participation of 89 smallholders from Asahan Regency. Participants included planters and their families.
During the opening ceremony on June 10, 2024, Hariyadi from Institut Pertanian Bogor (IPB) highlighted that smallholders’ plantations covered approximately 6.21 million hectares, accounting for 40.51% of Indonesia’s total palm oil plantations in 2022.
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“But in the cultivation, I believed the smallholders still depended on their own knowledge. This training would be the right one for the smallholders to share knowledge, technology, and understanding about good agricultural practices,” Hariyadi said, as in the official statement to Palmoilmagazine.com, Friday (14/6/2024).
He continued and hoped that by the training, the smallholders would join and understand as good as possible to be the smart and qualified ones. “The smallholders that would apply what they will get from this training, we hope, would escalate their plantation productivity and be in better class,” he said.
Coordinator or Chairman in SSP (Standarisasi Sertifikasi Profesi) Pusat Pelatihan Pertanian BPPSDMP Ministry of Agriculture, Eka Herrisuparman said that IPB Training is one training institution that got accreditation. “We hope the training would really escalate the smallholders’ skill and independency in palm oil cultivation,” Eka said.
Secretary of Secretariat Team of Palm Oil Plantation Human Resource Development General Directorate of Plantation Ministry of Agriculture, Herly Kurniawan said that this year, at least, 600 participants joined the training from North Sumatera Province. 210 of them were from Regency of Asahan. “The main topic in today’s training is the cultivation. We do hope that the smallholders would get more knowledge and competency to implement it well,” Herly said.
Sofyan, Head of Plantation Agriculture Agency Regency of Asahan hoped the participants would take advantages on the training well. “The training did not happen all of a sudden but it was our efforts from last year,” he said.
The training itself was inaugurated by Head of Plantation Livestock and Plantation Agency North Sumatera Province, Banua Pane. In his speech, Pane said that by the training, the smallholders should not only plant palm oil but understand good agricultural practices as what the trainer team of IPB Training delivered. “I do hope the participants would join it seriously but relax, dig whatever they want to know and share experiences with the speakers,” Pane said.
The participants also did field visit to get practical insight about palm oil seed cultivation in the industries. The field visit was in the fourth day on 13 June 2024 at Kebun Adolina PT Perkebunan Nusantara IV, Regency of Serdang Bedagai. It started by welcoming them by Mahmud Irfan Lubis, Manajer Balai Benih Kelapa Sawit PTPN IV Adolina, and Hariyadi as the representative of IPB Training.
The first location was Kebun Polinasi. The participants listened to the explanation about how to cross Dura and Psifera just like the team of Balai Benih Kebun Adolina said. After that the participants listened about the seeds process from the speaker. They also saw modern machines and technology used to process seeds until they are ready to sell. (T2)
