The productivity of smallholders’ oil palm plantations is still lower than that of the private palm plantations and state-owned palm plantations. As a result, the smallholders’ contribution to national palm oil production is much lower than expectation, despite the fact that they own around 41% of Indonesia’s total oil palm plantations of 16.38 million hectares.
The Palm Oil Research Center Head Dr. M. Edwin Syahputra Lubis said that digital technology is the key factor in increasing the productivity and efficiency of oil palm plantations, especially those owned by the smallholders who still rely on the conventional ways.
“We’re now focusing on the socialization of our latest research results to inform the public about their benefits. We hope the palm oil industrial players will be interested in applying them at the upstream, midstream and downstream palm oil industries,” he told the participants of the Primacom Business Gathering on Wednesday, 09 February 2022.
With the theme of “Optimizing Agriculture Business Process with Digital Transformation”, the gathering participants discussed about how and to what extent the digital technology has been implemented to optimize the business process to improve efficiency and productivity.
“The palm oil research center has initiated the digitalization of all production activities, and educate the smallholders on the use of the technology to make them on par with the private and state-owned palm oil companies,” said Edwin.
He introduced a number of digital applications that have been developed by his team, such as applications of My Sawit, Dokter Sawit, and several other applications that are expected able to help the smallholders in optimizing the productivity of oil palm plantations.
Raising productivity
Hadi Sugeng Wahyudiono, Chief Agronomy and Sustainability Officer of PT Astra Agro Lestari Tbk (AAL), who also addressed the same gathering, said that AAL has enjoyed an improvement of efficiency in its business operation after implementing the digital technology from the process of nursery, distribution, up to processing in the mills. “Based on data we’ve received since 2019 until now, our plantations have seen an increase of productivity at 26.35% and reduction of workers up to 16.6%. Our harvesting areas are still the same, but we managed to raise efficiency in terms of employing workers,” said Hadi.
He is optimistic that by consistently undertaking the digital transformation, AAL will be increasingly capable in increasing its efficiency and productivity towards reaching a world-class business operation. He said that the essence of the digitalization process is not to impress being cool and sophisticated. “Much more than that, the digitalization should be able to optimize the business process and operation of oil palm plantations,” he said.
Collaboration with Primacom
Farid Abdullah, the Head of IT Services of Minamas Plantation, concurred with the two previous speakers, saying that the implementation of digital technology should be able to increase user experience and enable connections to all IT channels.
But Farid noted that the digitalization also poses a challenge of its own, such as the issue of cyber security and operational cost. He said that as the head of IT division in Minamas Plantation, he is responsible in seeking for the right partners who are capable to provide solutions on the challenges.
“Facing the challenges, we’re trying to find the right and capable partners like Primacom. In my view, Primacom has an extensive connectivity and is able to provide reliable services for years,” said Farid.
He stated that relying on such telecommunication cooperation, Minamas’ business operations in various regions of Indonesia and communication with the Minamas central office in Jakarta can be effectively and efficiently implemented.
PT Primacom Interbuana’s Marketing Vice President Mariatin Ambiono said that Primacom is capable in supporting the digitalization process in the palm oil sector with various kinds of latest technologies.
Until now, Primacom has served more than 300 customers and owns more than 9,000 connecting points and 25 integrated service points across Indonesia. Primacom’s VSAT service is supported by 14 transponders, 6 satellites, and teleport services with WTA accreditation.
“Currently, we serve customers from all of business sectors, ranging from banking to oil and gas, contractors, agribusiness, transportation, maritime, logistics, and to public services,” he said.
According to him, there are three areas that are always developed by Primacom to support the digitalization process in plantation sector. First, the infrastructure in the plantations. For this purpose, Primacom provides various services, from VSAT to fiber optic which is combined with wireless microwave. With the VSAT technology, Primacom provides services of C-Band, Ku-Band, and Ka-Band, which will be continually developed according to the field conditions. In addition to that, Primacom provides Prima WiFi service to support the internet need in the plantation areas. (*)
Source: SawitIndonesia.com | Featured image via kompasiana.com
