Indonesia: Palm oil firms should forge collaboration with farmers: Ministry

Deputy for Coordinating Food and Agriculture at the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs Musdalifah Mahmud appealed to companies to conduct partnerships with farmers to boost the nation’s palm oil productivity.

Mahmud noted that the productivity of palm oil farmers in Indonesia was still low, at only two tons of crude palm oil (CPO) per hectare per year. Meanwhile, the productivity of large-scale plantations can reach eight tons of CPO per hectare per year.

“The difference is three to five times. Therefore, we urge companies to conduct partnerships to help farmers increase their productivity,” Mahmud stated at the COP27 Climate Change Conference in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, according to an official statement received here, Thursday.

She noted that the partnerships can be in the form of a replanting program wherein farmers can use qualified palm oil seeds like those used by plantation companies.

“Companies are also obliged to help increase the capacity of farmers, including in marketing their crops,” she remarked.

Mahmud noted that the government had provided various facilities to strengthen community-scale plantations, including the people’s business credit program (KUR) and the smart farming program that included supply chain digitalization.

On the same occasion, Director of Inventory and Monitoring of Forest Resources of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Belinda Arunawati, noted that apart from the state forest area, there were around 7.4 million hectares of land, with the status of other use areas covered in the forest.

“To prevent forest conversion, cooperation involving all stakeholders at the national and sub-national levels is important,” she noted.

Overall, Indonesia has some 95.3 million hectares of forest cover across the country.

In addition, this partnership can support Indonesia’s efforts to reduce carbon emissions, one of which is through the FOLU Net Sink 2030 agenda.

Director General of Forestry Planning and Environmental Management of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry Ruandha Agung Sugardiman remarked that the target for this agenda aimed at balancing the absorption level of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the forestry sector and other lands or even bigger than its emissions in 2030.

“The target for the FOLU Net Sink 2030 is to reach the GHG emission level of minus 140 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e),” he noted.

Tags: Egypt, Indonesia, Crude palm oil, palm oil, CPO, productivity