Government Encourages Oil Palm Farmers to Make Cooperatives
- Dokumentasi PT NSS.
VIVA – The Ministry of Cooperatives and Small Medium Enterprises(UKM) encourages independent oil palm farmers to be consolidated into cooperatives. It aims to make it easier for farmers to benefit from the sale of their agricultural products.
Assistant Deputy for Cooperative Development and Reform of the Ministry of Cooperatives and Small Medium Enterprises (UKM), Bagus Rachman in the discussion of the Merdeka Barat 9 Forum entitled "Manage the Governance of the Palm Oil Industry" said that besides to being able to get a chain guarantee, supply and price, standardization of the resulting product can be achieved. It was said when he was at Jakarta on Wednesday, June 9, 2022.
"BPS data in 2020 noted that 40 percent of oil palm plantations are managed by independent smallholders. But in our opinion, they should be consolidated," Bagus Rachman said.
Bagus also conveyed that most independent oil palm smallholders cultivate oil palm on their own scattered land.
On average, their land reaches 2 hectares to 2.5 hectares. Because of these conditions, according to him, it would be better if they were consolidated from the land side.
"They are scattered over several stretches, so it is difficult for BPDPKS to replant but if it is consolidated through cooperatives, it will enter economies of scale," he added.
According to Bagus, cooperatives can also act as aggregators so that the product standards of independent smallholders can be maintained. Not only that, oil palm farmer cooperatives can also become modern cooperatives that have adopted technology and have potential on an industrial scale.
So, it has access to sources of capital and markets in order to produce high added value and great benefits to its members by prioritizing the values ??and principles of cooperatives.
"Based on the data, 35 percent of the total production of 44.8 million tons of palm oil is managed by the community, so they cannot stand alone. But they must be consolidated with cooperatives so that cooperatives will deal with buyers later," Bagus said.
Cooperatives can also act as aggregators so that the product standards of independent smallholders can be maintained. Not only that, oil palm farmer cooperatives can also become modern cooperatives that have adopted technology and have potential on an industrial scale.
Previously, the Ministry of Cooperatives UKM evaluated the consolidation was expected to be able to realize a pilot project for the development of the smallholders' palm oil industry in 2022 as an effort, among others, to develop red palm oil as a solution to overcome the problem of availability and price of cooking oil.
