North Sumatera to Remove Obstacles in Oil Palm Replanting

THE Government of Indonesian province of North Sumatera continuously intensifies its efforts to implement Smallholders’ Oil Palm Plantation Replanting Program (PSR) on the grounds that it is an effective way to improve economic value of palm oil products. However, the government must remove obstacles the farmers face, including to solve problem of the right land tenure permits. “Almost 50% of the plantation is owned by smallholders but some of them don’t have the right land tenure permits. In some cases, the smallholders have moved into forest areas. It needs mutisectoral approach to solve this problem,” Head of North Sumatera Plantation Office Herawati told reporters in Medan, Thursday (27/6/2019). She said, 1.3 million hectares of lands in North Sumatera is under oil palm plantation cultivation or the second largest in Indonesia after Riau. “We have already implemented PSR program, having support from Palm Oil Fund which is disbursed by the Indonesia Oil Palm Plantation Fund Management Agency (BPDPKS). Since 2017, North Sumatera has replanted oil palm trees in 5.000 hectares of lands,` Herawati said. She believes the PSR program will automatically improve palm oil economic value. Fluctuations in prices are common for world commodities, including crude palm oil (CPO) and Fresh Fruit Bunches (FFB). “Fluctuations in prices are common so that we needn’t worry as the business environment remains conducive.” Oil palm replanting will also improve the productivity from which the product will be absorbed by biodiesel mandatory program. Currently the government is implementing B20 mandatory program and will increase its bio-content to B30 in 2020 as well as B100 in the future. *** (Sources: Merdeka/Kumparan)