
InfoSAWIT, PALU – Palm Oil Plantation Fund Management Agency (PFMA) conducted training for 54 smallholders from Regency of Morowali Utara (Morut). It has been running since on 16 to 20 July 2024 at Swissbell Hotel, Palu and it was the collaboration among PFMA, General Directorate of Plantation Ministry of Agriculture and Institut Pertanian Bogor (IPB) Training. The goal would be about to escalate insight and skills of the smallholders in many palm oil cultivation aspects, starting from the seeds, materials to plant, the planting, nursery, and control plant organism pests.
It was inaugurated on Tuesday (16/07/2024) at Ballroom Swissbell Hotel, attended by Head of Livestock and Plantation Aegncy Central Sulawesi Province, Rohani Mastura; Secretary of Food and Agriculture Agency Regency of Morut, Mohamat Syukur Laraga; and Team Chairman in Labor Training and Institution BPPSDMP Ministry of Agriculture, M. Apuk Ismane. Six professional trainers from IPB Training did attend to deliver materials about palm oil cultivation for the participants.
The representative of IPB Training, Hariyadi hoped the participants would get additional insight and new things in palm oil cultivation. “We hope after the training ends, the smallholders would get better class, they could be more intelligent and qualified to cultivate their plantations,” he said, as in the official statement to InfoSAWIT, Friday (18/7/2024).
Head of Livestock and Plantation Agency Central Sulawesi Province, Rohani Mastura did appreciate the cooperation among the regional government, the private sector, and the academy for the training. “The collaboration is the reflection from our same commitment to escalate the smallholders’ welfare and plantation productivity,” she said.
Rohani continued the training would be very important to develop palm oil plantations in the province. “Palm oil cultivation would need deeper understanding about the latest technic and sustainable and best practices,” she said. To maintain the roles of sustainable palm oil, the training is the need to develop technical practices in plans and right on targets, and provide prior scale to develop planters human resource (HR).
One participant in the training, Munding Palega appreciated PFMA. “On behalf of smallholders, we do appreciate the government for delivering training for us. Hopefully, palm oil sector namely in Morut would go forward,” he said.
Other participant, Budiarjo Laumoto did appreciate PFMA and IPB Training. “On behalf of smallholders, we appreciate the government for having the training. Hopefully, Morut would go forward,” he said by hoping there would be more trainings in each region to develop agricultural potential.
The five day - training was full of effective interaction between the participants and speakers. They were enthusiastic to tell what happened in the field. Besides getting materials in theories, the participants were visiting palm oil plantations to directly see the cultivation and seeding process on Thursday (18/07/2024) in PT. Unggul Widya Teknologi Lestari, Sub district of Baras, Regency of Pasangkayu, West Sulawesi Province. They visited mature plantations, the location to control organism pests, and nursery.
In the first location, they visited mature plantation, how to get good and effective harvest technic, tried to identify plant morphology, saw harvest tools to cut which have been modified. After that the participants visited the areas to control disease by breeding owls. These were interesting for them.
In the next location, they got special tool demonstration to mechanically fertilizer (the plants). They were happy for getting new experiences and insights about the latest tools. They also visited the seeding area, learned how to know certified and uncertified seeds, the distance to plant, and the sprout technic.
By having the training, the smallholders in Morut should implement what they knew to escalate their plantation quality and quantity and palm oil plantations in the province could develop fast. (T2)