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Palm Oil Governance Should be Improved in the Era of President Prabowo Subianto



Doc. of InfoSAWIT/Prof. Rachmat Pambudi, Professor of IPB University and coordinator of Himpunan Kerukunan Tani Indonesia (HKTI).
Palm Oil Governance Should be Improved in the Era of President Prabowo Subianto

InfoSAWIT, JAKARTA – The issues about palm oil plantations in Indonesia might always happen even until the leadership substtution in this country. But many still want to solve the issues.

By having the elected President Prabowo Subianto, many hoped to improve smallholders’ palm oil plantation governance in the future. Professor (Prof) Rachmat Pambudi from Institut Pertanian Bogor (IPB) University and also coordinator of Himpunan Kerukunan Tani Indonesia (HKTI) said, the new government should conduct some things to solve palm oil plantation sectors.

Some things to do, for instance, are to encourage National Land Agency to immediately publish smallholders’ area certificates. Ministry of Environment and Forestry should acknowledge palm oil plantations that have been developing since 2020.

He also emphasized, it would be significant to implement replanting (as the mandatory) for every plantation that their productivity would be less than 1,2 tons of fresh fruit bunch (FFB) per hectare per month or the yield of crude palm oil would be less than 3 tons per hectare per year. “Conduct replanting program for the plantations that their production was only reaching 0,4 – 0,7 tons FFB per hectare per month. This could be covering for about 3,2 million hectares and 1,6 million hectares were categorized to be old and immature plants,” Prof. Rachmat said in a discussion in Jakarta that InfoSAWIT attended, Monday (8/7/2024).

To support and encourage the replanting program, he suggested to utilize the fund from Palm Oil Plantation Fund Management Agency and escalate cost fund in smallholders’ replanting program from Rp 30 million per hectare to be Rp 60 million per hectare. Besides, he also suggested, the program should be synchronized with Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO) certificate.

He also encouraged the grade A – cooperation to immediately construct palm cooking oil mill or pabrik minyak goreng (PAMIGO) to fulfill the needs for Minyakita (program). Besides, it would be important to involve the smallholders before publishing new regulations. He suggested to revise ISPO President’s Regulation which the content could be relative; the Regulation of Minister of Agriculture Number 1 / 2018 about FFB Governance which protects plasma smallholders only while the independent smallholders go not get the same protection.

National Strategic Program about palm oil should also deliver affirmation for the smallholders namely who join replanting program. “84% smallholders failed to propose replanting program because Ministry of Environment and Forestry, and National Land Agency do intervene,” he said.

By sharing the hopes and suggestion, it is hoped palm oil plantation governance in Indonesia would be better in the leadership of the next President Prabowo Subianto. (T2)

 

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