The rejuvenation of small-scale palm oil plantations is aimed at increasing productivity, Vice President Ma’ruf Amin has said.

Small-scale palm oil plantation productivity is still as low as 3.7 tons per hectares a year therefore, increasing productivity would require the government’s support, Amin said while observing the first harvest of a small-scale palm oil plantation rejuvenation (PSR) program from his official residence here on Thursday.

“The PSR program is part of the government’s effort to increase productivity of small-scale palm oil plantations, which is still low at 3.7 tons per hectare per year, while they have the potential to produce 8 tons per hectares per year,” he noted. In addition, palm oil trees rejuvenation is also aimed at absorbing more workers as part of the national economic recovery (PEN) program, he said.

The government has targeted to rejuvenate small-scale palm oil plantations and extend their acreage to 180 thousand hectares of land by 2021 and 540 thousand hectares by 2022.

“In 2021, the program has targeted 180 thousand hectares of land with fund allocation at Rp5.567 trillion,” Amin said.

He then called on all stakeholders in the palm oil industry to work in collaboration with the government. “It will need close cooperation among three parties to manage sustainable palm oil plantations: the government, the private sector, and the public,” he added.

He said 41.35 percent of palm oil plantations in the country are small-scale plantations, with production pegged at 16.2 million tons.

“Based on data from Statistics Indonesia (BPS), in 2019, of the total 14.6 million hectares of palm oil plantation, some 6.04 million hectares were small-scale plantations, with production of 16.2 million tons,” Amin added.

Source: Antara News