Government’s oil palm policy is to continue developing
oil palm in the midst of negative campaigns. “After I made a comparison, the
benefit is 90%, while the negative side is only 10%. Therefore, we will
continue to develop oil palm”, said Rismansyah Danusaputra, Director of
Perennial Plant of Directorate General of Plantation, Agriculture Ministry.
From import duty alone, total fund collected has reached
Rp 28 trillions, and it is attempted so that several trillions of it can be
used to assist farmers. “We continue to coordinate with the Finance Ministry so
that the total fund from import duty can be set aside for farmers development”,
he said.
The urgent thing now is rejuvenation of smallholder
plantation. State Budget (APBN) fund for rejuvenation is very limited, and
could only access a few number of farmers, while those who must be rejuvenated
is very expansive. “We must try so that rejuvenation will not be late. The
problem is that not all farmers want to perform rejuvenation at the same time”,
he said.
Development of oil palm plantation must be sustainable.
The government sets a limit on development of size oil palm plantation only at
9 million hectares. “If we increase the size drastically, it will become target
of negative campaign saying that oil palm harms the environment”, he said.
For large companies, the limitation on size of plantation
area can be controlled by licensing mechanism. Oil palm licenses are limited.
But, for self-supporting farmers, oil palm development cannot be limited”, he
said.
“In accordance with Law on Plant Cultivation, we cannot
prohibit farmers from planting oil palm. Currently, in South Sumatera, Riau and
Jambi, oil palm is planted among paddy. In South Sumatera, I saw that the
intercropping between paddy and oil palm causes the plants to grow properly”.
Development of prime oil palm seed is continuously
performed by 11 oil palm seed is continuously preformed by 11 oil palm sprout
companies. “The government is very grateful to private companies who have
developed oil prime seeds. Development of new clones should be the
responsibility of the government. The government is incapable of doing this, so
it is performed by private parties”, he said.
Each company has a specialty. There is a company who
produces ganoderma-resistant seeds, and another company who produces peat soil
seeds, etc. The good quality oil palm seeds produced by Indonesian companies
can be seen from Malaysian companies who made investment in Indonesia.
“Formerly, they brought seeds from Malaysian, now they started to buy oil palm
seeds from Indonesia. And, in the opening of a plantation in Serawak, the seeds
are bought from Indonesia”.
Farmers’ awareness of oil palm planting is very high.
Some of them have planted oil palm for 5-10 years and now they will cut their
oil palm trees and receive prime seed assistance because their oil palm have
not been producing qualified fruits due to the use of fake seeds.
Indonesia Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO) audit has been
conducted and there are 40 companies who are ready to obtain ISPO. So that cost
for obtaining ISPO will be cheaper, the company is required to send an internal
auditor to prepare everything that must be performed. This will be much cheaper
and faster instead of hiring an external auditor.
ISPO principle and criteria for farmers, whether plasma
or self-supporting farmers, will be complete this month. “ISPO has been
recognized by overseas buyers, so if it is delayed, the implementation will
cause difficulty to all oil palm business operators”, he said.
Business News - June 15, 2012
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