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Govt aims to boost productivity at individually run oil palm plantations
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Prime products: A worker collects bunches of oil palm in a plantation owned by PT Wanasawit Subur Lestari in Pangkalan Bun, Central Kalimantan, on Dec.19, 2015. (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)
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he government is focusing on increasing the productivity of individually run palm oil businesses by implementing a replanting program.
Coordinating Economic Minister Darmin Nasution said compared to corporate-run plantations, individually run plantations had far lower productivity. Poor quality seeds and the low productivity of palm trees far beyond their normal productive age were among causes of the problem.
“We need to focus on quality seeds. Individually run plantations have a productivity level of 1.7 tons per hectare, while corporate-run plantations can produce 5.6 to 5.7 tons of palm oil per ha. Why? This is because their seeds are of poor quality," Darmin said at the State Palace on Friday.
To overcome the problem, the Finance Ministry's Indonesian Oil Palm Estate Fund (BPDP-KS) plans to allocate around Rp 500 billion (US$37.53 million) to replant 22,000 ha of oil palm plantations in 2017. The number could be revised based on regulations issued by the finance and agriculture ministries.
Darmin said the replanting would be overseen by the Agriculture Ministry, which had also been assigned to provide quality seeds. The government would pair the BPDP-KS with the Agriculture Ministry, he added. (ebf)
