Costs and benefits of certification of independent oil palm smallholders in Indonesia

Hutabarat, Sakti; Slingerland, Maja; Rietberg, P.I.; Dries, Liesbeth

doi:10.22434/ifamr2016.0162

Cited by 56 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 16 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Despite the responses in vegetative growth and bunch weight that we observed, the costs of the additional nutrient applications far outweighed the benefits, even without considering the additional labour investments for fertiliser application. These results are in line with the findings of Hutabarat et al (2018), who studied a group of RSPO-certified independent smallholders and observed that the implementation of better management practices similar to ours, in combination with RSPO certification, led to a small increase in yield but a decrease in farm income, due to the great increase in costs. It is likely that fertiliser application and other BMPs will have a stronger effect on yield in plantations which are more nutrient-constrained and have poorer starting yields.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

“…In Jambi in particular, the participants rigorously followed the recommended 10-day harvesting round in the period 2014-2016 (both in the BMP and in the control plots) but stopped doing so in 2017 because of personal circumstances of the lead farmer, who was also the trader. Increased harvesting frequency has been proposed as a strong driver of increased bunch yield (Donough et al, 2010;Lee et al, 2013) and improved oil content and quality (Corley, 2001;Donough, 2003), leading to improved bunch prices (Hutabarat et al, 2018). The combination of better harvesting practices and better drainage could explain a large part of the excellent 2015 yields in Jambi, and the return to a 15-day harvesting interval combined with flooding in 2017 may explain why yields were reduced in that year.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A project reported by IPNI (2015) showed large yield increases in Ghana due to farm maintenance only, particularly when the starting yields were very poor. Hutabarat et al (2018) proposed that yield increases are feasible when following GAP recommendations from the RSPO, but the exact practices that were implemented were not defined.…”

Section: Better (Or Best) Management Practices In Oil Palm Plantationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Studies on the management of smallholder plantations (Molenaar et al, 2010;Molenaar et al, 2013;Euler et al, 2016a;Hutabarat et al, 2018;Woittiez et al, 2018a) generally point to limited implementation of good agricultural practices in smallholder fields. This can be attributed, at least partly, to the costs farmers face when trying to increase yields, due to high input prices, labour costs, uncertain farm-gate prices for their products, challenges in obtaining credit for investments and lack of reliable information on crop responses to be expected.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

On yield gaps and better management practices in Indonesian smallholder oil palm plantations

Woittiez

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Better (Or Best) Management Practices In Oil Palm Plantationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

On yield gaps and better management practices in Indonesian smallholder oil palm plantations

Woittiez

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…Smallholders need additional costs to meet the standards while additional yield and revenue might be uncertain (Hutabarat, Slingerland, Rietberg, et al, 2017).…”

Section: Certification Is a Documented Agreementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ispo Certification and Indonesian Oil Palm Competitiveness in Global Market: Smallholder Challenges Toward ISPO Certification

Hutabarat

2018

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Certification becomes a prerequisite for tradable products to get legality and access to global market. Each tradable product can choose certificate according to its market destination. However, the application of certification standards are very low in both international (RSPO and ISCC) and domestic (ISPO) standards. This study was focused on the ISPO certification. How large is the gap between current practices and ISPO standard? What are factors that affect adoption of ISPO certification? Does ISPO deliver more access to market for oil palm smallholders? Do smallholders have adequate capacity to meet ISPO standard? These questions have been assessed and discussed in this paper to find answer and alternative way out for smallholders to meet the ISPO standard. The objective of this study is to assess capacity and willingness of oil palm independent smallholders to meet the standard of ISPO certification. This study was conducted in Pelalawan District, Riau Province using a survey method. The result shows that a number of barriers are faced by smallholders to obtain ISPO certification while the opportunity to get better access to local and global market is still uncertain. The adoption of ISPO certificate was influenced by farmers' knowledge on agricultural practices, business legality, household income, and land-size. Keywords

show abstract

Complexities of sustainable palm oil production by smallholders in sub‐Saharan Africa

Ayompe,

Nkongho,

Wandum

et al. 2023

Sustainable Development

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Sub‐Saharan Africa is increasingly viewed as an important area for oil palm cultivation and expansion. Palm oil is a commodity that can help developing countries like Cameroon attain their sustainable development goals (SDGs) targets through poverty alleviation (SDG 1) and by providing revenue to smallholder farmers to buy a variety of food thereby reducing hunger. However, due to the many negative environmental and social consequences, the sector needs to be made more sustainable. In this study, we set out to unpack the complexities including costs and benefits for smallholder farmers to practice sustainable palm oil production. We use both gray and peer‐reviewed literature, conversational interviews with smallholder farmers and managers of certified palm oil mills, and a workshop with smallholders in Cameroon. We found that smallholders face several challenges including weak land tenure rights, the use of poor‐quality seeds and low‐yielding oil palms, and a lack of skills, expertise, and access to financing. Certification could help alleviate some of the challenges by providing access to financing, training to improve yields, access to better seedlings, and increased access to higher value markets. However, the certification cost is very high compared to the income from oil palm cultivation for most farmers. Farmers will therefore need considerable assistance from organizations and brokers to remain financially viable. Our study provides important insights to countries such as the EU, United Kingdom, and United States that are in the process of adopting legislation to regulate deforestation associated with imports of key commodities such as palm oil.

show abstract

Costs and benefits of certification of independent oil palm smallholders in Indonesia

Cited by 56 publications

References 16 publications

On yield gaps and better management practices in Indonesian smallholder oil palm plantations

On yield gaps and better management practices in Indonesian smallholder oil palm plantations

Ispo Certification and Indonesian Oil Palm Competitiveness in Global Market: Smallholder Challenges Toward ISPO Certification

Complexities of sustainable palm oil production by smallholders in sub‐Saharan Africa

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About