08 October 2024

The Indonesian government is committed to ensuring the sustainability of the palm oil industry in Indonesia, despite facing many challenges. A number of steps have been taken to sustain the industry. This is because the palm oil sector is proven to be able to improve people's welfare and reduce poverty.

“Sustainable palm oil is good for the planet, for humans and for protected species in addition to providing profits. PT Mahkota Group Tbk has a vision to become one of the world's best companies, which prioritizes stakeholder welfare and is environmentally friendly in producing palm oil, “said President Director of PT Mahkota Group Tbk, Usli Sarsi.

According to him, oil palm plantations are a gift given by God Almighty to the Indonesian people, because not many countries around the world can plant oil palm. But if palm oil is not managed sustainably, it can damage forests and endanger people and wildlife.

In order for palm oil production in Indonesia to be maintained and increased, land fertility must be maintained so that there is no need to open new land to plant oil palm. With the current area of oil palm plantations in Indonesia, it is enough to meet domestic and foreign needs, it is only a matter of how the current oil palm production can be increased.

One way to maintain soil fertility is by using compost. So far, the use of chemical fertilizers in the long term can reduce soil fertility. If the use of chemical fertilizers continues, it is feared that palm oil production will continue to decline and to meet market needs, it is inevitable to expand the land by utilizing swamp land that has not been managed optimally.

Indonesia is an agricultural country with most of the population working in the agricultural and plantation sectors. The agricultural and plantation sector should be able to improve the welfare of the community by increasing agricultural and plantation production so as to increase the income of both farmers and the state.

“Indonesia actually needs a lot of compost fertilizer for agricultural land and plantations,” said Usli Sarsi, who is also Deputy Chairperson of the North Sumatra Indonesian Entrepreneurs Association (APINDOSU) in charge of Agriculture and Plantations.

According to him, Indonesia is not difficult to produce compost fertilizer considering that raw materials can be taken from agricultural waste, plantations, livestock and so on. In the future, the compost fertilizer industry is very promising to provide good profits from selling fertilizers plus opinions from carbon credits.

“To realize the vision, the company is collaborating with other companies to process palm empty fruit bunches into compost in South Sumatra,” he said.

So that palm oil waste such as jankos does not damage the environment, it needs to be processed so that it has a positive impact on both the company and the environment. “This is the first granular compost fertilizer plant made from palm jankos in South Sumatra, as well as a solution for handling palm oil mill waste into added value. Since the beginning, the company has applied sustainable principles and has entered the top 10 plantation companies with the Best Sustainability Index,” he said.

Source : Analisa Daily published on Sunday, 6 October 2024