Indonesia, 21 February 2020 – The Regional Government of Pelalawan District launched an extension program and assistance for oil palm planters on February 19, 2019, in Pelalawan district, Riau. This program aims to encourage increased Palm Oil productivity with the principle of sustainable intensification. Through this program, it is expected that 2,000 Farmers will receive Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) Training, be ready for ISPO certification and be eligible for the Smallholders Replanting Program (PSR) program.
Pelalawan District has an area of 273,000 Ha of oil palm Plantation (Disbunnak Pelalawan, 2019), 10% of the total area of Riau Palm Oil palm land, with more than 1/3 of the land area owned by Smallholders . community planters number more than 20,000 people and still need assistance and counseling with various field problems such as low productivity, legal status of land, access to capital, the absence of organizational / institutional Smallholders who can unite their vision and sustainability.
Departing from this problem, the Good Growth Partnership (GGP) through UNDP took the initiative to initiate a program that seeks to encourage the increase in productivity of Smallholders by adhering to the principle of sustainable intensification. Thus, the strengthening of Smallholders goes hand in hand with efforts to minimize negative impacts on the environment. GGP is a global platform that implements the “Generating Responsible Demand for Reduced Deforestation Commodities” program.
The GGP aims to encourage increased production of sustainable commodities that emphasize reducing deforestation, sustainable intensification programs, biodiversity conservation, and efforts to address gender gaps in agricultural production. This global platform is funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF). In Indonesia, one of the implementers of the GGP program is UNDP.
This program is also in line with other initiatives that have been initiated to encourage improvements in Palm Oil governance and production, including initiatives to encourage partnerships between planters and companies that are more sustainable, as stipulated in Regent’s Regulation Number 69 of 2019 concerning Oil Palm Plantation Business Partnerships in Pelalawan District.
The Ministry of Agriculture fully supports this initiative. The Director General of Plantations, represented by the Director of Estate Crops Processing and Marketing, Dedi Junaedi confirmed his support. “The Ministry of Agriculture supports positive steps from the Regional Government of Pelalawan District which is continuously developing new strategies and ways to improve governance in the Natural Resources business including in the Palm Oil sub-sector,” he said. Furthermore, the Pelalawan District Head, M. Harris, emphasized that the launch of the Counselling and Assistance Support Program for Oil Palm Smallholders in Pelalawan District was a shared momentum for us to be able to work together in developing sustainable oil palm plantations in Pelalawan District.
As a form of partnership between the public and private sectors, this program is also supported by various parties. The program initiated by the Ministry of Agriculture, Pelalawan District Government and UNDP is also supported by PT Musim Mas and IKEA. IKEA provides financial support for a variety of program activities. Meanwhile, PT. Musim Mas actively trains field assistant assistants, specifically related to Best Cultivation Practices that have been implemented by Musim Mas. Going forward, this kind of collaboration is expected to continue and get stronger and can lead to various initiatives to accelerate the development of sustainable Palm Oil in Pelalawan Regency in particular and Indonesia in general.
Editor’s Note
About the United Nations Development Program (UNDP)
UNDP works to support Indonesia’s efforts to fight poverty, promote inclusive economic growth, reduce inequality between groups and regions, and help achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 throughout the country. In the environment and energy sector, UNDP is helping Indonesia to protect and manage the environment, including biodiversity and natural resources. UNDP works to strengthen environmental and sustainable development policies, which integrate climate change issues and at the same time provide poverty reduction and human development.
For more information, visit http://www.id.undp.org/
About the Global Environment Facility (GEF)
The GEF is a multilateral donor, where the Indonesian government also contributes as one of its donors. The GEF provides funding to developing countries and countries with economies in transition to meet the objectives of international environmental conventions and agreements. GEF support is provided to government agencies, civil society organizations, private sector companies, research institutions, and other potential partners to implement projects and programs in recipient countries.
For more information, visit https://www.thegef.org/
About GGP
Good Growth Partnership (GGP) is a platform that works across sectors between production, finance and demand based on a broad scope by involving various stakeholders and initiatives to reduce the rate of deforestation and strive for sustainable development in 3 main commodity supply chains, namely: soybeans, beef, and oil palm. Good Growth Partnership integrates with the Sustainable Palm Oil Initiative (SPOI) program. SPOI is a collaborative project between the Directorate General of Plantations, the Ministry of Agriculture and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). This partnership program works in all sectors, including the production sector, (upstream sector), finance and demand (downstream sector) in order to create a sustainable supply chain of global commodity supply. In the production sector, this project aims to catalyse the development of the national oil palm industry towards long-term sustainability.
For more information, visit http://goodgrowthpartnership.com/
This press release is extracted from Foksbi’s website.
For more information, please contact:
Carolyn Lim
Corporate Communications
media@musimmas.com
+65 6576 4770
