InfoSAWIT, KOTABARU – As the number one palm oil producer country in the world, Indonesia would try to escalate its plantation productivity by conducting smallholders replanting program (SRP). In an event in Batulicin, South Kalimantan Province, Director of Palm Oil Plant and Various Palm, Ardi Praptono that represented minister of agriculture, said that SRP would be significant as the strategic thing to escalate plantation productivity in Indonesia.
"Kick Off” of the first planting in SRP in partnership with Indonesian Palm Oil Association (IPOA) and with the intercrop, paddy gogo, would be the significant moment in the program. The partnership between IPOA and smallholders would be the key aspect to implement SRP with the plasma plantations of Koperasi Unit Desa (KUD) Gajah Mada as the real sample.
Even though the smallholders play the vital roles in palm oil industries, their plantation productivity is less than the big private plantations or the government’s plantations. But with the supports from the government through Palm Oil Plantation Fund Management Agency (PFMA), many parties would do the best to escalate the smallholders’ plantation productivity.
SRP program is also supported by General Directorate of Plantation Ministry of Agriculture by publishing recommendation for 6 thousand hectares of the smallholders’ plantations in South Kalimantan Province. This would cover to substitute unproductive trees by planting high quality – seeds and implementing good agricultural practices to escalate the productivity and harvest quality.
Chairman of IPOA, Eddy Martono said that SRP in partnership is not about to escalate palm oil plantation productivity but also support food security nationally. “Integrated program by planting paddy gogo would deliver double advantages for the local and escalate smallholders’ welfare,” he said, as in the official statement to InfoSAWIT, Friday (26/4/2024).
The support from PFMA would be in the form of delivering funds for 52 thousand hectares, the candidates of smallholders’ plantations. It would involve about 150 planters’ institutions. About 1.800 hectares would be part of SRP program in partnership. It showed the same commitment to escalate plantation productivity and smallholders’ welfare in Indonesia. (T2)
