Indonesia will boost efforts to ensure a scheme to replant palm oil to lift flagging yields meet a target of 180,000 hectares this year, an official said on Monday, as growers of the edible oil face increased scrutiny over sustainability.

The world's biggest palm oil producer launched a subsidised palm oil replanting programme for smallholders five years ago in a bid to boost output without clearing more forested land and to help fend off attacks on the sustainability of the crop.

The plans also come as the European Union, Indonesia's third-largest market for palm oil, has agreed a deforestation law that requires companies to produce a due diligence statement showing when and where commodities were produced and provide "verifiable" information proving were not grown on land deforested after 2020.

At its launch in late 2017, Indonesia had initially targeted replanting 2.4 million hectares (5.9 million acres) by 2025. However, sluggish implementation forced authorities to adjust the target in 2019 to 180,000 hectare per year but this reduced target has also not been achieved.

Between 2017 and now, only around 278,000 hectares of the crop had been replanted, said Musdhalifah Machmud, a senior official at the Coordinating Ministry of Economic Affairs.

"The 180,000 hectare target must really be reached," she said, adding that authorities had simplified requirements for the scheme and called for improvements in coordination, as well as boosting the involvement of private companies.

"The average yield of 2.5 tonnes per hectare must be increased to 6 tonnes to 8 tonnes per hectare," Musdhalifah told a meeting with government officials and palm oil planters.

The programme is aimed at boosting output by small farmers, who account for around 40 per cent of Indonesia's 16 million hectares of palm oil plantations. Some palm oil trees in smallholder plantations have not been replanted in more than 25 years.

Farmers have faced difficulties in proving that their land meets requirements, including proving that their plantation is not in a forest area and does not overlap with other concessions. At times of high palm oil prices, farmers have also been reluctant to join the replanting scheme, worried about missing out on profit.

Source:
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/business/indonesia-must-achieve-palm-oil-replanting-target-senior-official-3308646?cid=cna_flip_070214