TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The government has continued to discuss the period of moratorium on the issuance of new permits for oil palm plantations and mining operations.
National Development Planning Minister Sofyan Djalil said that the policy would need more deliberations, since many people were still relying on oil palm businesses.
"[The moratorium] was President [Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's] idea. We will discuss it further," Sofyan said at his office onFriday, April 15, 2016.
Sofyan claimed that the moratorium would promote discipline in the palm oil sector and boost productivity of oil palm farmers.
"Currently, the productivity of people’s oil palm plantations stands at 4 million tons. If we can improve it, the productivity will be equal with that of private-owned plantations," Sofyan added.
Sofyan explained that the productivity of people’s oil palm plantations could be improved to 8 million tons without increase the size of the plantations.
Sofyan also revealed that many small mining companies failed to rehabilitate their mines after the operations. Unlike large mining companies, used mines operated by a few people were left stranded without being replanted.
Agriculture Ministry’s director general of plantations Gamal Nasir said that the total size of oil palm plantations in Indonesia was 11 million hectares.
"It's time to stop opening new plantations. What’s necessary is productivity improvement," Gamal added.
According to Gamal, the government will strive to boost productivity by promoting replanting since oil palms on people’s plantations are quite old. Gamal added that the government will craft programs to fix agriculture infrastructures.
ALI HIDAYAT