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Indonesia-Malaysia palm oil sustainability standard 'hard to implement'

The Vice President of the Council of Governors of RSPO, Edi Suhardi, who represents the Indonesian oil palm plantation owners, judges that [...]

Read More Indonesia-Malaysia palm oil sustainability standard 'hard to implement'. The Vice President of the Council of Governors of RSPO, Edi Suhardi, who represents the Indonesian oil palm plantation owners, judges that harmonization of the relevant laws on the Indonesian and Malaysian palm oil standards certification will not be easy to implement.`The industry business standards are simple, but we cannot go smooth sailing when it comes to synchronizing the laws,` he said on the sidelines of the 13th RSPO Meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Wednesday.`For example, Indonesia may be able to be more transparent to hand over electronic maps. However, Malaysia is protected by secrecy laws,` he said.Indonesia and Malaysia agreed to set up a Council of Palm Oil Producing Countries (CPOPC), and to draft a single standard for sustainable palm oil.The agreement is a follow up to the meeting in Bogor on October 11th between President Joko Widodo and Prime Minister Najib Razak, to face the challenges in the world palm oil market, in which both countries jointly control 85 percent.Both countries are setting up a task force to harmonize both countries' industry standards. The effort is aimed at promoting the welfare of the small oil palm plantation owners in Indonesia and Malaysia.Edi said, `The regional certificate may or may not work, depending on the governments involved.Editor: Maryathttp://www.antaranews.com/berita/530066/rspo-nilai-standar-sawit-indonesia-malaysia-sulit-dijalankan

Oil palm productivity in Riau is still low

"Low productivity on such plantation businesses characterized by fresh fruit bunch/ffb CPO of 4–6 tons/ha/year, fresh fruit bunch/ffb CPO of [...]

Read More Oil palm productivity in Riau is still low. `Low productivity on such plantation businesses characterized by fresh fruit bunch/ffb CPO of 4–6 tons/ha/year, fresh fruit bunch/ffb CPO of 20–30 tons/ha/year, CPO 3–5 tons/ha/year and CPO production of 10–15 tons/ha/year,` said the Head of Riau Plantation Office Muhibul Basar in Pekanbaru on Tuesday.According to him, low productivity is also caused by non-superior seeds or non-certified seeds, poor plantation maintenance, and limited facilities and infrastructure.He said that such condition makes farmers income low, besides still facing internal constraints such as limited access for farmers to sell CPO ffb to the factory, so that they have to sell to middlemen.“Other constraints that contributed to Riau palm oil low productivity are farmers’ limited capability to obtain superior and certified seeds, as well as fertilizers and pesticides,” he said.Moreover, he added that still low human resources of the farmers affect their capability to adopt plantation technology, weak institution, yet unmapped distribution of farmers’ plantation, age group of farmers’ plantation is difficult to know, and there are still many Riau farmers that do not have business permit in accordance with the laws and regulations.Palm oil farmers’ livelihood is even more miserable, due to increment of destructed plantation land area, increment of critical plantation land, sea water intrusion, dry and prone to fire condition of the plantation land due to farmers’ canals that are not partitioned (water flows to the sea freely).“Farmers’ plantation land is increasingly prone to fire due to non-implementation of peat water management, besides the land resources that are limited and prone to conflicts, overlapping plantation permits. While the farmers’ plantation land is located within the forest area,” he said.Therefore, he added, Disbun Riau now intensifies the coaching, provides production means assistance, education and training as well as technical guidance through activity programs funded by the State Budget and Regional Budget. Editor: Ruslan Burhanihttp://www.antaranews.com/berita/529994/produktivitas-sawit-riau-masih-rendah