InfoSAWIT, JAKARTA - For the public, Roger A Gillbanks is not too familiar. But for the agronomists in palm oil plantation, he is the real agronomist of Australia.

Let us say, Head Agronomi PT USTP, Marlon Sitanggang. He even said that Roger A Gillbanks is an “Oppung” or ‘Oppung’ Roger A Gillbanks. The word ‘Oppung’ (in Bataknese -red) means Grandfather. Placing the word ‘Oppung’ in front of Roger’s name means that Marlon personally respects and honours Roger A Gillbanks because Roger A Gillbanks, as a matter of fact, is a teacher of agronomy from Thomas Fairhust (agronomy consultant and writer of series of palm oil) and he is an agronomy teacher for Marlon.

Roger A Gillbanks is actually an agronomy consultant that founded Gillbanks Associates in Perth, Australia. His experiences in agriculture and plantation also led him to palm oil plantation sector. In many discussions, Roger A Gillbanks once worked in Harrisons & Crosfield until 1985 and Kina Gillbanks until 1998.

Roger A Gillbanks is also a writer. Many field planters would know Roger’s book, that is, “Oil Palm Cultivation and Management” that was published for the first time in 1974.

The book now becomes the reference for the other palm oil writers. If many practitioners have the book, it would be very useful to develop palm oil from the bottom to top scale, besides a pride, of course.

Now Roger A Gillbanks is about 84 years old. Though he is old, Roger A Gillbanks still wants to work and does whatever it takes in the field though he needs stick to walk to share his experience and knowledge to nowadays planters.

What Roger A Gillbanks has done, of course, becomes the trigger of spirit to the young planters in Indonesia to keep struggling and developing sustainable palm oil plantation.

In addition, what Roger A Gillbanks has been doing is not for ‘cash’ because in Australia, the citizen who is more than 50 years old would be helped by the Country. It can be seen that he dedicates his life to develop palm oil plantation in Indonesia. (T2)

Source: InfoSAWIT, January 2018