16 December 2019

The impending energy crisis is increasingly evident. Energy sources such as oil, coal, gas are expected to run out. Meanwhile, the use of nuclear as an energy source has a major impact on human survival. If this energy source leaks, the radiation caused is very dangerous, not only to humans, but also the environment.

“The earthquake that occurred in Japan caused damage to the nuclear reactor. That is very dangerous,” said the President Director of PT Mahkota Group during the visit of 5th and 7th Semester Students of Nomensen University, Faculty of Law, Business Law Study Program at NTU, Tuesday (10/12).

For this reason, said Usli, there is a need for sustainable and environmentally friendly energy sources. One of them comes from plants.

Currently the land used in the world to grow crops such as soybeans, cottonseed, rapeseed, sunflower and palm oil is 290 million hectares to produce 221 million tons of oil. Of this land use, 44 percent is planted with soybeans producing 24 percent, cottonseed as much as 12 percent producing 2 percent oil. Rapeseed 11 percent yields 11 percent oil. Sunflower 9 percent produces 9 percent oil and palm oil 7 percent produces 34 percent oil from 221 million tons of oil as an energy source.

Usli said that oil palm can also be planted in swamps that have not been utilized so far. In Indonesia, there are 23 million hectares of swamps. This is a great potential to develop oil palm plantations without damaging the environment.

“I do not agree that palm oil damages the environment. But there is mismanagement that damages the environment. If you look at the management of oil palm, only about 20 percent are mismanaged, while 80 percent manage well,” he said.

Future

The oil that oil palm produces as energy has been shown to be more abundant than other crops. Similarly, it uses less land.

Usli appreciated the government's support for palm oil to produce energy sources. This year the government implemented B20 and next year (2020) it will increase to B30. With this increase, domestic absorption of CPO rose by 2.6 million tons. That is from B30, not to mention the use of cooking oil and so on.

“Palm oil is the future of Indonesia,” Usli said.​

Take Part

Although oil palm is a very promising prospect, not everyone can do it. It requires a large investment. Usli pointed out that it costs IDR 120 billion to set up one CPO factory. It costs IDR 320 billion to set up a cooking oil factory. At least 100 hectares of oil palm plantations are needed to make a profit.​

The amount of investment required does not mean that students cannot take part in getting profits. By buying shares of palm oil companies, you are already an investor.

“Buy shares of companies that have promising prospects for profit,” he emphasized.