PALMOILMAGAZINE, PALU – The Palm Oil Plantation Fund Management Agency (PFMA) conducted a training session for 54 smallholders from Morowali Utara Regency (Morut) from 16 to 20 July 2024 at the Swissbell Hotel in Palu.
This training, a collaboration between PFMA, the General Directorate of Plantation Ministry of Agriculture, and Institut Pertanian Bogor (IPB), aimed to enhance smallholders’ knowledge and skills in various aspects of palm oil cultivation, including seed selection, planting materials, planting techniques, nursery management, and pest control.
The training was inaugurated on Tuesday, 16 July 2024, at the Swissbell Hotel Ballroom, with attendance from Rohani Mastura, Head of the Livestock and Plantation Agency of Central Sulawesi Province; Mohamat Syukur Laraga, Secretary of the Food and Agriculture Agency of Morut Regency; and M. Apuk Ismane, Team Chairman in Labor Training and Institutions at BPPSDMP Ministry of Agriculture. Six professional trainers from IPB Training were present to provide instruction on palm oil cultivation.
Also Read: PFMA and Directorate of Plantations Collaborate on Palm Oil Cultivation Training
The representative of IPB Training, Hariyadi hoped the participants would get additional insight and new things in palm oil cultivation. “We hope after the training ends, the smallholders would get better class, they could be more intelligent and qualified to cultivate their plantations,” he said, as in the official statement to Palmoilmagazine.com, Friday (18/7/2024).
Head of Livestock and Plantation Agency Central Sulawesi Province, Rohani Mastura did appreciate the cooperation among the regional government, the private sector, and the academy for the training. “The collaboration is the reflection from our same commitment to escalate the smallholders’ welfare and plantation productivity,” she said.
Rohani continued the training would be very important to develop palm oil plantations in the province. “Palm oil cultivation would need deeper understanding about the latest technic and sustainable and best practices,” she said. To maintain the roles of sustainable palm oil, the training is the need to develop technical practices in plans and right on targets, and provide prior scale to develop planters human resource (HR).
One participant in the training, Munding Palega appreciated PFMA. “On behalf of smallholders, we do appreciate the government for delivering training for us. Hopefully, palm oil sector namely in Morut would go forward,” he said.
Other participant, Budiarjo Laumoto did appreciate PFMA and IPB Training. “On behalf of smallholders, we appreciate the government for having the training. Hopefully, Morut would go forward,” he said by hoping there would be more trainings in each region to develop agricultural potential.
The five day – training was full of effective interaction between the participants and speakers. They were enthusiastic to tell what happened in the field. Besides getting materials in theories, the participants were visiting palm oil plantations to directly see the cultivation and seeding process on Thursday (18/07/2024) in PT. Unggul Widya Teknologi Lestari, Sub district of Baras, Regency of Pasangkayu, West Sulawesi Province. They visited mature plantations, the location to control organism pests, and nursery.
In the first location, they visited mature plantation, how to get good and effective harvest technic, tried to identify plant morphology, saw harvest tools to cut which have been modified. After that the participants visited the areas to control disease by breeding owls. These were interesting for them.
In the next location, they got special tool demonstration to mechanically fertilizer (the plants). They were happy for getting new experiences and insights about the latest tools. They also visited the seeding area, learned how to know certified and uncertified seeds, the distance to plant, and the sprout technic.
By having the training, the smallholders in Morut should implement what they knew to escalate their plantation quality and quantity and palm oil plantations in the province could develop fast. (P2)
