Felling and Chipping Mark The Second Phase of Oil Palm Replanting in Musi Banyuasin

TOGETHER with smallholder farmers, the Indonesian Oil Palm Estate Fund (BPDPKS) and Musi Banyuasin Regency Government felled and chipped oil palm trees to start 2018 replanting program in Sumber Rezeki Village, Sungai Ilin Sub-district, Musi Banyuasin Regency, South Sumatra, Monday (6/8/2018).

Felling and Chipping Mark The Second Phase of Oil Palm Replanting in Musi Banyuasin

TOGETHER with smallholder farmers, the Indonesian Oil Palm Estate Fund (BPDPKS) and Musi Banyuasin Regency Government felled and chipped oil palm trees to start 2018 replanting program in Sumber Rezeki Village, Sungai Ilin Sub-district, Musi Banyuasin Regency, South Sumatra, Monday (6/8/2018).

The felling and chipping process which is followed by initial tree-planting in Sungai Ilin Sub-district marked the second phase of Smallholders’ Oil Palm Replanting Program (PSR) for 2018 planting season in Musi Banyuasin Regency. The replanting program will cover 935 hectares of smallholder plantations operated by Farmer-managed Cooperatives (locally known as KPKS) and Village Cooperative System (locally known as KUD).

The plantation in Sungai Ilin Sub-district is operated by KPPS Suka Rezeki from Sumber Rezeki Village, KUD Mekar Sari from Mekar Jadi Village, and KUD Mitra Tani from Linggosari Village. According to the President Director of BPDPKS Dono Boestami, there are approximately 2,4 million hectares of oil palm plantation to be replanted across the country. In 2018, the replanting plan will cover 185 thousand hectares of plantations.

For this program, BPDPKS provides grant of Rp25 million per hectare and for 2018 BPDPKS will allocate a total grant of Rp4,6 trillion to cover 185 thousand hectares. “In Musi Banyuasin Regency, the first replanting program was started and it has shown satisfactory results. We plan to make this success as an example for other regency in 22 provinces in Indonesia,” Dono said.

Meanwhile, Vice Regent of Musi Banyuasin Beni Hernedi said that the regency is planning to operate its own palm oil mills. “We are focused to develop this commodity. Recently, we are planning to start developing downstream industry and we are expected supports for this plan.”

Oil Palm Replanting Program in Musi Banyuasin Regency was the first government-initiated replanting program in Indonesia for 2017 and inaugurated by President Joko Widodo on 13 October 2017. It covers 5.000 hectares of smallholder plantations. The first phase of the program has been completed in Keluang Sub-district that covered 4.446 hectares.

“We are moving forward to meet the target of 5.000 hectares of plantations in Musi Banyuasin. A part from ex-plasma plantations, we are planning to cover plantation operated by smallholder farmers who are not associated with KUD as well,” Iskandar Syahrianto, Head of Plantation Office of Musi Banyuasin Regency Government, said. ***