BANDUNG – Acting Director General of Plantations at the ministry of agriculture, Heru Tri Widarto has underlined the importance of increasing the national productivity of existing oil palm plantations as the main strategy to meet the rising need of palm oil for production of biodiesel, especially for the implementation of mandatory program of biodiesel 40 percent (B40) and B50.
Heru made the statement when addressing the Forum of Expert Connect 2025 with the theme “Unstoppable Agriculture: Peak Productivity and Operations Efficiency”, which was organized by Shell and Majalah Sawit Indonesia in Bandung on Wednesday (18/6).
“Last week, Agriculture Minister convened a meeting with palm oil companies. They are asked to support the efforts of increasing national productivity of oil palm plantations to 7.0 tons of CPO per hectare per year,” said Heru.
According to him, the increase of palm oil production is needed for development of biofuel, which needs the supply of CPO in big amount. Fulfilling the need of B50 program is estimated to require an addition of CPO supply of around 7.0 million tons. But currently, the national productivity only averaged at 3.6 tons per hectare per year.
“The potentiality of seeds already distributed by the government can reach 7.0 to 9.0 tons per hectare. It means there is a gap of 3-4 tons to catch up on. If the productivity increases to 7.0 tons, we will have an addition of production at 7.0 million tons of CPO without land expansion,” said Heru.
“We know the oil palm plantations are the backbone of our national economy in Indonesia with a total palm plantation areas of 16.8 million hectares. Looking forward, our job is not only to maintain our position as the world’s largest producer of CPO, but also to preserve our environment and improve the welfare of our people, especially smallholders,” said Heru.
Heru stated that intensification steps like the replanting program and improvement of cultivation system in the upstream are more realistic than opening new land areas of plantations. He also criticized the slow implementation of replanting program for smallholders’ plantations due to a number of obstacles, especially on verification and field implementations.
“Through this forum, I’d like to encourage big companies to push up the implementation of replanting program through the partnership schemes. One of the schemes is collaboration between smallholders and companies with financial support from BPDPKS (Oil Palm Plantation Fund Management Board),” he said. (*)
Sawitindonesia.com. Kementan Targetkan Produktivitas Sawit Nasional 7 Ton/Ha/Tahun. https://sawitindonesia.com/kementan-targetkan-produktivitas-sawit-nasional-7-ton-ha-tahun/. 18 Juni 2025
