PALMOILMAGAZINE, JAKARTA – Efforts to accelerate Indonesia’s Smallholder Palm Oil Replanting Program (PSR) must begin with strengthening the foundations at farmer level, particularly through more solid, professional, and industry-integrated institutions, according to Rumah Sawit Indonesia (RSI).
The organization believes this step is critical to help smallholders move beyond simply managing plantations and become modern, competitive agribusiness entrepreneurs.
RSI Chairman Kacuk Sumarto said the PSR program carries strategic importance not only for farmer welfare, but also for the long-term resilience of Indonesia’s palm oil industry.
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“Smallholder replanting is a highly important program, not only for farmers but also for the country. If implemented smoothly, crude palm oil (CPO) production could increase by at least 20 million tons per year without opening new land,” Kacuk said during a closed-door discussion forum at Menara Agrinas Palma in Jakarta on Monday (April 27, 2026).
Although PSR has become a national priority, implementation over nearly the past decade has fallen short of expectations. Since the program began in 2017, the total replanted area has yet to reach 450,000 hectares, well below the annual target of 180,000 hectares.
According to Kacuk, the slow progress is not primarily caused by funding constraints, but by delays at the proposal stage, where procedures remain lengthy and complex.
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“The main problems are weak farmer institutions, inaccurate land polygons, and slow issuance of land clearance documents confirming that areas are outside forest zones and do not overlap with plantation concessions,” he said.
These administrative bottlenecks have caused many PSR proposals to stall or fail during verification.
Community Building as the Starting Point
To overcome these obstacles, RSI has proposed a community-building approach as the first stage of empowering palm oil farmers.
The model would involve workshops, discussion forums, field engagement, and informal dialogue with farmers to create stronger collective awareness of the importance of institutions and professional organization.
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Through stronger communities, farmers are expected to gain better understanding of business legality, organizational governance, sustainable plantation management, financial administration, labor practices, and regulatory compliance.
Strong farmer institutions are also seen as key to accelerating adoption of digital tools in plantation management and palm oil trading, giving farmers broader access to market information, financing, and technology.
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Involve Professional Institutions for Faster Verification
RSI also urged regulatory simplification by involving qualified third-party institutions with government legitimacy, particularly in technical land mapping processes.
Kacuk said professional surveying and mapping institutions could be authorized to prepare highly accurate land polygons and conduct overlays with forest area maps and Hak Guna Usaha (HGU) concession maps.
Under such a scheme, land status documents confirming that farms are outside forest areas and free from concession overlaps could be issued more quickly, without lengthy bureaucracy at land or forestry offices.
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“If this technical authority is given to professional institutions with the right capacity and legitimacy, the PSR proposal process will be much faster, more accurate, and more efficient,” Kacuk said.
He added that based on field experience, polygons prepared by professional institutions generally pass verification immediately due to their higher accuracy and stronger legal standing.
RSI’s proposal is seen as an important opportunity to reform PSR governance into a system that is simpler while remaining prudent, accountable, and measurable.
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With stronger farmer institutions, better technology support, and streamlined administration, faster PSR implementation could become a major lever for raising national smallholder productivity without expanding new land.
If executed effectively, the program would not only increase Indonesia’s CPO output, but also help smallholders move into a more modern, efficient, and sustainable industrial era. (P2)
