InfoSAWIT, JAKARTA – After being successfully developing palm oil plantations and becoming one big vegetable oil industry in the world, Wilmar has been running paddy business since 2018.
There are lots of challenge to develop paddy business in Indonesia but having mission to welfare paddy field farmers in Indonesia, Wilmar Padi Indonesia could surpass any obstacles in its five first years.
Rice Business Head PT Wilmar Padi Indonesia (WPI), Saronto said developing paddy business started from the will to take samples in smallholders’ welfare – the partners of Wilmar. This would happen to paddy farmers in Indonesia. The other reason is that until now the paddy farmers always got cheaper grain and delivered impacts for their income.
Saronto who has been working at Wilmar for tens of years has his own term that the company would always purchase the paddy farmers’ grain in ‘fair’ price. The keys are productivity, paddy biomass advantages, and other derivatives.
“We would deliver chances of profits, not from the grain but from the husk waste to be processed into coal substitution because the calories is high enough, including to process paddy flour,” he said in breaking the fasting ceremony that InfoSAWIT joined, Tuesday (28/3/2023) in Jakarta.
To escalate paddy productivity, and to get increasing income, at least, the paddy farmers should get monthly income as same as regional minimum wage in average.
WPI targeted partnership through Farmer Engagement Program (FEP) in 2023 and would increase to be 10 thousand hectares. The numbers significantly escalate from last year which laid only 3.366 hectares.
Saronto also said, there would be three new locations in FEP this year, they are, Pandeglang, Lampung, and Kuala Tanjung. The company increases its partnership program for the paddy farmers respond well, namely for the development team provided by the company to escalate their partners’ productivity.
From field data, the paddy farmers could increase 15% productivity after being developed by the team. “Developing them could increase their productivity and they automatically get increasing income,” Saronto said.
In the first planting (November 2022 – February 2023), the paddy farmers in FEP reached 2.302 men within their areas about 2.815 hectares. The numbers escalated from last year that had 1.626 men within about 1.113 hectares. Since the second planting (March - June 2021) until now the total paddy farmers joining FEP reached 7.561 men within 6.798 hectares and they are in Java and Sumatera. FEP started from the second planting 2021 within its partners that had 141 hectares only.
The program runs well because the regional governments really support it namely from plantation agency, agri-input companies, and farmers’ groups.
In the program, the farmers got three facilities, they are, agri-input, which covers agricultural insurance, agricultural production infrastructures. WPI is also in cooperation with Jasindo and regional government to deliver subsidy for the farmers. Besides the company is in cooperation with Asuransi Central Asia (ACA). The second, the farmers should implement good agriculture practices (GAP). The third, they would get market access, which means, the company would purchase their production in normal and fair price. (T2)
