The Target Of The 2025 Palm Oil Rejuvenation Program Is Estimated To Be Only 50,000 Hectares

JAKARTA - The People's Palm Oil Rejuvenation Program (PSR) is expected not to meet its target again by 2025, and since its launch in 2017, this program has never succeeded in achieving the set target.

President Director of the Plantation Fund Management Agency (BPDP) Eddy Abdurrachman estimates that by the end of 2025, the realization of PSR will only cover around 50,000 hectares of the total target of 180,000 hectares.

He admitted that the target was quite ambitious, making it difficult to realize.

"In 2025 there is still one semester left, yes, that's if I estimate it might reach around 50,000. The target is very high, 180,000, it is very ambitious," he said in Jakarta, Wednesday, August 20.

Eddy added that the highest achievement of PSR occurred in 2019 with an area of around 94,000 hectares.

However, after that, the realization continued to decline and the average only reached 40,000-50,000 hectares each year.

According to Eddy, this decline was due to the voluntary PSR, so that the participation of farmers was very dependent on their own willingness to participate in the program.

In addition, he said, the high price of fresh fruit bunches (FFB) for palm oil is also an obstacle.

Menurutnya, petani lebih memilih mempertahankan kebun mereka karena harga sawit yang tinggi memberikan keuntungan besar, dan sebagian besar dari mereka menggantungkan hidup pada hasil kebun tersebut.

"Yang paling utama itu sekarang harga sawitnya lagi bagus sehingga sementara mereka nggak mau ikut itu dulu karena harga sawit bagus, sehingga pendapatan mereka akan meningkat karena kebanyakan kebun-kebun sawit rakyat satu-satunya bagi pemenuhan kebutuhan hidup mereka," jelasnya.

According to him, farmers prefer to maintain their gardens because the high price of palm oil provides great profits, and most of them depend on the garden's products.

"The most important thing is that now the price of palm oil is still good, so while they don't want to join it first because the price of palm oil is good, so their income will increase because most of the people's oil palm plantations are the only ones for meeting their necessities of life," he explained.