PALMOILMAGAZINE, RIAU – The independent smallholder organization, Serikat Petani Kelapa Sawit (SPKS), is collaborating with the Plantation Agency of Rokan Hulu Regency to bolster and promote the acceleration of Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO) certification for independent smallholders. As their numbers grow, they are becoming increasingly integral to the global palm oil industry.
Sabarudin, Chairman of SPKS, emphasized that independent smallholders in Rokan Hulu still require support from the regency to educate them about obtaining ISPO certification. This support encompasses assistance in infrastructure, obtaining cultivation permits, and developing their organizations to implement sustainable and best practices in palm oil cultivation.
“To get ISPO certificate, it needs good cooperation with the regency as their foster parents to develop sustainable palm oil plantations,” he said to Palmoilmagazine.com by the late of February 2024.
Also Read: SPKS Drives ISPO Certification Acceleration for Smallholders in Siak
Head of Plantation Agency Regency of Rokan Hulu, CH. Agung Nugroho also fully supported the independent smallholders that want to join the organization and get ISPO certificate. He thought, ISPO certificate would be mandatory for every planter including them.
“Regency of Rokan Hulu fully supports independent smallholders that want to join SPKS to get ISPO certificate,” he said.
The cooperation between the two is realized in official memorandum of understanding (MoU) as the basic to get cooperation in ISPO certification facilitation and other activities that would have something to do with palm oil governance improvement for SPKS members. The goal is also about to escalate their ability and potential, and each resource to support the smallholders to be equal and sustainable optimally.
Some significant points in the MoU are about to escalate institutional capacity and smallholders’ human resources, facilitate ISPO certification activity for SPKS members, support smallholders replanting program acceleration, develop infrastructures and others that both sides agreed with.
the MoU would be for the next four years and would be in synergy and sustainably conducted. (T1)
