InfoSAWIT, JAKARTA - Indonesia, as the main palm oil producer in the world, faces many issues to improve palm oil plantation governance. The government keeps trying the best to solve every issue to maintain the sustainability in palm oil industries.
Uncertified seeds and the low implementation of good agricultural practices (GAP) are issues in palm oil industries.
Director of Plantation Product Marketing and Cultivation General Directorate of Plantation Ministry of Agriculture said that GAP was low to be implemented in many plantations and this influenced palm oil productivity and quality.
It also needs to escalate planters’ capacity and institution to get palm oil production quality. It needs to get education and training about the best practices in palm oil agriculture to escalate plantation productivity and efficiency.
There are conflicts about areas in protected regions. Some plantations might be indicated to be planted in peat protected regions. This would be serious issues because it potentially damages environment and creates conflicts with the institutions that care of natural conservation.
Many smallholders are assumed not to get legality of their plantation, not have freehold title, cultivation document or not get Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO) certificate. “The lack of legality could be the issues to invest and develop palm oil industries,” he said as the speaker in a discussion in Jakarta that InfoSAWIT attended by the late of July 2023.
Prayudi continued most palm oil plantations in Indonesia still depend on men to work at. The mechanism is not fully running. The planting of intercrops is not optimized still and the plantation productivity should be escalated by more modern technology.
Until now many planters face difficulties to access fund to develop theirs, difficult to get affordable agro-input. “This could be the obstacle to develop palm oil industries, as well,” he said.
The long supply chain process also influences fresh fruit bunch (FFB) quality and price. That is why to escalate additional values, it needs to get efficient supply chain and escalate FFB quality itself.
The last is that it needs to take for advantage of palm oil side products optimally with better waste management system to get more environmental and sustainable environment. (T2)
