Oil Palm Trees Also Grow in Pesantren

INTELLECTUAL intelligence will always be ideal when it is combined with spiritual intelligence, creativity, innovation, and a strong entrepreneurial skill. That is why, the Syaichona Cholil Islamic Boarding School in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan strongly believes that their students need to master other knowledge a part from Islamic knowledge. This Islamic boarding school, or locally called Pesantren, is led by KH Muhammad Ali Cholil. It provides their students economic and agriculture knowledge based on oil palm plantations.  The aim of this learning method is to provide comprehensive views on business and economic aspect and to develop skill to manage sustainable oil palm plantation as well. One of the teacher, Ustad Mohammed Syukron, explained that they have converted unused land into oil palm plantation since 2013. “Farmers  and some palm oil firms supported us by providing seeds. At the time we didn’t know that seeds must be certified,” he said as quoted by sawitindonesia.com. The lesson about managing oil palm plantation is given every Saturday. The teachers come from the Indonesian Oil Palm Farmers Association (Apkindo) and from other agriculture institution.  ***