PALEMBANG – The provincial government of South Sumatera, one of major palm oil producing provinces in Indonesia, has proposed to the agriculture ministry to get assistance in implementing the replanting program for 18,500 hectares of smallholders’ oil palm plantations in 2022.

Rudi Arpian, an official of South Sumatra plantation service in charge of facilities, said in Palembang that the proposal is based on the demand of local cooperatives and smallholders’ associations in seven regencies/ mayoralties of the province.

The seven regencies/mayoralties are Banyuasin (1,000 hectares), Ogan Komering Ulu (1,000 hectares), Musi Rawas (1,401 hectares), Muara Enim (1,671 hectares), Lahat (1,800 hectares), Musi Rawas Utara (649 hectares), and Ogan Komering Ilir (11,050 hectares). He said this year replanting proposal is higher than that of last year at around 13,000 hectares.

“We hope the realization of replanting program this year will be higher than that of last year when the realization was only around 50 percent of the target,” he said recently in Palembang.

According to Rudi, the current high price of palm oil has encouraged the smallholders to delay replanting of their plantations. “Despite already old, over 25 years, their oil palm trees can still produce fresh fruit bunches (FFB) although not as good as those of the age of 5-10 years,” he said.

He said that currently the price of FFB from the smallholders is around Rp3,000 per kilogram, as compared to the previous price of only around Rp1,500 per kilogram. Even in 2018, the price dropped to around Rp500 per kilogram.

“The smallholders are afraid of losing this booming time. If they join the replanting program, they will not get income from their plantations. It will take at least three years for the new plantations to start production again,” he said.

But there have been smallholders who have benefited from the replanting program in South Sumatra, including those in Musi Banyuasin regency as they implemented the replanting in 2017. The smallholders in the regency have already harvested their plantations since 2020, allowing them to benefit plentifully from the current high price of palm oil.

Based on the result of the program monitoring in South Sumatra, oil palm plantation areas technically recommended for replanting program during the period of 2017 – 2021 reached a total of 48,329 hectares, consisting of 6,331 hectares in 2017, 12,560 hectares in 2018, 10,136 hectares in 2019, 12,595 hectares in 2020, and 6,706 hectares in 2021.

He said that during the period the realization of chipping (first process before replanting) reached 32,437 hectares, while replanting realization reached 30,218 hectares.

A total fund for replanting transferred from the oil palm plantation fund management board (BPDPKS) amounted to Rp1.07 trillion. (*)

Source: ANTARA