JAKARTA – The productivity of Indonesian oil palm plantations is expected to increase significantly by up to 15 percent due to the application of pollinating insects from Tanzania in the palm plantations.
The Indonesian Palm Oil Association (GAPKI) Chairman Eddy Martono said that with the help of the insect pollination, fruit formation will be more perfect. “We should be able to increase production by around 10 to 15 percent with the pollinating insects,” Eddy said after a meeting at the Ministry of Agriculture Office in Jakarta on Wednesday (11/03/2026).
According to Eddy, with the new genetic resource, Indonesia can double its annual production, currently at 24 tons of fresh fruit bunches (FFB) per hectare per year.
He said that currently, the Tanzanian pollinating insects are ready to be released on the oil palm plantations owned by GAPKI member companies.
Eddy Martono said that he came to the agriculture ministry office to ask Agriculture Minister Andi Amran Sulaiman to formally release the Tanzanian pollinators this coming April in Medan, North Sumatra province.
“Our plan is to ask the Minister to release the Tanzanian insect pollinators. It’s because the insect release is a monumental event. It will increase the productivity of our oil palm plantations.” Eddy said.
“Thank God, it seems he’s happy, and we’ll arrange a time later,” he added.
According to Eddy, it won’t take long to see the impact of using the Tanzanian pollinators. “It only takes about six months after the release of the insects into the plantation areas before the results will be visible,” he said.
“But this release is currently limited, as not all of them yet. It’s still within the GAPKI consortium members. But after that, we will start releasing them to the communities as well,” said Eddy.
Separately, GAPKI Secretary General M. Hadi Sugeng stated that three species of pollinating insects from Tanzania were imported to increase oil palm productivity.
According to him, breeding these pollinating insects takes about two years before they can be released into the plantations.
“We have successfully obtained pollinating insects from Tanzania. There are three pollinating insects: Herodotus cambricus, Herodotus lachitatus, and Herodotus supitatus. We are currently breeding all three at the PPKS (Oil Palm Research Center) in Medan,” said Hadi Sugeng. (*)
Kompas.com. “GAPKI Siap Lepas Serangga Penyerbuk Tanzania, Produksi Sawit Bisa Naik 15%.” 11 Maret 2026. https://money.kompas.com/read/2026/03/11/155100726/gapki-siap-lepas-serangga-penyerbuk-tanzania-produksi-sawit-bisa-naik-15
