Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – Head of the IPB Palm Oil Research Center, Budi Mulyanto, revealed that land legality, seed quality and fertilizer availability are among the reasons for the low productivity of palm oil in the country. For land legality, usually Oil palm land borders forest areas, so clear legality is needed.

“This legality issue often creates a fuss, because someone comes to fix the land which is not in accordance with statutory regulations. This must be followed, because otherwise it will become a problem. So how can legality be straightened out,” said Budi in a CNBC Indonesia Special Dialogue, Thursday ( 11/16/2023).

Land legality issues are usually obstacles that are often encountered, especially in smallholder oil palm plantations. As a result, the productivity of smallholder oil palm plantations is usually lower than institutional ones. Even though the government has encouraged the replanting of oil palm plants, he believes that the legality of the land often gets in the way. The reason is that replanting funds cannot be distributed if the oil palm plantation is in a forest area.

“The problem with replanting is that many people’s gardens are claimed as forest areas. The problem is that if the forest areas are forest areas, BPDPKS funds cannot go there, so the legality of shares is a fundamental issue,” he said.

Apart from land legality, seed quality and fertilizer availability are also often obstacles. Usually the quality of palm oil seeds in smallholder plantations is not well controlled and results in lower production.

Budi hopes that BPDPKS can provide good quality oil palm seeds for people’s plantations. Lastly, fertilizer is also an important aspect for the palm oil industry. If fertilizer distribution is slow, productivity could fall.

“For this reason, it is important for APKASINDO to standardize this oil palm cultivation system,” he said.

[Gambas:Video CNBC]

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