JAKARTA – The next government of President-elect Prabowo Subianto will find it difficult to realize the implementation of biodiesel 100 percent (B100) program due to the shrinkage of oil palm plantations in Indonesia.
Budi Mulyanto, Head of Palm Oil Study Center at Bogor-based University of Agriculture (IPB), said that Indonesia’s oil palm plantations have been continually decreasing due to the implementation of the government regulation in lieu of law (Perpu) No.2/ 2022 on job creation, especially its article 110A and 110B.
“Under current supply condition, it’s very hard to allocate the CPO (crude palm oil) for food consumption and for feedstock of energy production,” Budi Mulyanto told the press during GAPKI’s Halal Bihalal (Eid al-Fitr Gathering) with media on Tuesday (30/04/2024) in Jakarta.
According to him, upgrading the mandatory production of biodiesel from the current B35 to B100 will at least double the need for CPO as feedstock to produce the biodiesel.
He said that under current total acreage of Indonesia’s oil palm plantations and current total production, Indonesia will find it difficult to upgrade its biodiesel mandatory program from the current B35 to B40. “Then surely, it will find it even much harder to upgrade it up to B100,” he said.
According to Budi Mulyanto, the main problem is the continual shrinkage of oil palm plantations caused by the implementation of the omnibus law on job creation (UUCK). “Of the total 3.4 million hectares of plantations categorized as encroaching forests, 2.4 million hectares are subjected to the implementation of article 110 B. It means that such plantations are only allowed for just one cycle of cultivation and after that they will become forest areas,” he said.
Budi proposed as a solution for the next government of Prabowo – Gibran to revise the UUCK, especially its article 110A and 110 B.
According to him, the law’s article 110B is very naive in categorizing the plantation areas as illegal. “Those palm plantations had been developed under the transmigration program initiated by President Suharto since 1986,” he said. (*)
Source: sawitku.id
