InfoSAWIT, JAKARTA - Palm oil certification would be the main focus to realize sustainable agricultural practices. But even though kinds of certification scheme run, some weaknesses need attention to get it more effective.

The other important issue is that fairness in certification accessibility. A very expensive cost would be the issue for smallholders to participate in sustainability program.

Field experiences revealed that many smallholders could not afford the certification process. It raised question about access equity to sustainable certification. It needs to maintain certification cost would be affordable for every related party.

Bernadinus Steni Sugiarto of Yayasan Kaleka said, if certification process coveres less than 500 smallholders, it would be expensive or more than US$ 170 per smallholders. But if it covers more than 2000 smallholders, it would spend less or not more than US$ 50 per smallholder.

To solve this, it needs more holistic and coordinated approach. One solution proposed is by escalating the scale of certification to get more smallholders in the process. By expanding the cover, it would significantly spend less and help more smallholders to get it

Besides, it needs intervention to minimize certification process costs by providing and delivering subsidy to escalate the smallholders’ capacity, map their areas, establish their organization, and deal with their legal (areas) to be getting certification process more efficient and fairer for every involved stakeholder.

By considering every issue and adopting more inclusive and coordinated approach, we would ensure that palm oil certification would really contribute to create more sustainable and environmental industries. “Certification process for smallholders would be minimized in jurisdiction scale,” Steni said.

Source: Majalah InfoSAWIT, April 2024