Commodity Online
JAKARTA: Indonesia, the largest palm oil producer in the world, has already sowed high yield seedlings in eyeing to double its output to 40 million metric tonnes by 2020.
On the sidelines of a Palm oil conference, Franky Widjaja, chairman of the Indonesian Palm Oil Board, said that the country is on a mission to increase its target for that every year it increases the average yield for its oil palm plantations to 4.5 tonnes a hectare from 3.5 tonnes.
Smallholders have been given high yielding seedlings, starting from last year, under a government program aimed at boosting yields and productivity, said Widjaja.
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He added the increase in yields will be seen in plantations which have benefited from such programs as well as plantations which have started to replant mature trees. He didn’t elaborate on the total size of such plantations.
Widjaja admitted the task of increasing yields would be an uphill one as smallholder farmers would rather hold on to current plantations with low yields than commit to replanting, which would mean trees would only start producing in three years. “Oil palm trees have a 25-year cycle so it will be some time before such trees are replanted,” he said.
