Benefits of Palm Crops

 Benefits of Palm Crops

The most important part to be processed from oil palm is its fruit. Part of the meat produces crude palm oil that is processed into raw material of cooking oil. Excess vegetable oil from palm is cheap, low cholesterol, and has high carotene content. Palm oil can also be processed into raw materials of alcohol oil, soap, candles, and the cosmetics industry. The remaining processing of palm fruit is very potential to be a mixture of fodder and fermented into compost. Empty bunches can be used for palm oil mulch, as raw material for making organic pulp and solvent, and oil palm shells can be used as fuel and active charcoal making.

Oil palm has higher productivity than other vegetable oils (such as soy beans, peanuts and others), so the price of production becomes lighter. Long palm oil production period (22 years) will also affect the light of production costs incurred by palm oil businessmen. Palm oil is also the most resistant plant and disease compared to other vegetable oils. When viewed from the per capita consumption of vegetable oils the world reaches an average of 25 kg / year per person, this need will continue to increase in line with population growth and increased per capita konsimsi.

The Role of Oil Palm in Indonesian Economy

In the Indonesian economy, palm oil (in this case oil) has a strategic role, because: (1) Palm oil is the main raw material of cooking oil, so the continuous supply keeps the price stability of the cooking oil. This is important because cooking oil is one of the 9 basic needs of society so that the price must be affordable by all layers of society. (2) As one of agriculture commodities mainstay of non oil and gas export, this commodity has good prospect as source in foreign exchange earnings and taxes. (3) In the process of production and processing also able to create job opportunity and also improve society prosperity.

Until the mid-1970s coconut oil was the main supplier of domestic vegetable oil needs. Both cooking oil and other food industries use coconut oil more than palm oil. Coconut production that tended to decline during the last 20 years caused the supply to be unsafe, resulting in a coconut oil crisis in the early 1970s. On the other hand, palm oil production tended to increase so that the position of palm oil was replaced by palm oil, especially in the cooking oil industry. In terms of foreign exchange earnings, over the last few years the condition is not good. The volume of exports over the past decade has always been increasing, but the increase is not always followed by an increase in its value. This is because of price fluctuations in the international market.

Oil palm histories

The oil palm plant (Elaeis guineensis) originating from western Africa, is the main producer of vegetable oils that have higher productivity than other vegetable oils. Palm oil was first introduced in Indonesia by the Dutch government in 1848. At that time there were 4 seeds of oil palm grown in Bogor Botanical Garden, two from Bourbon (Mauritius) and two others from Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam ( Netherlands). Initially oil palm plants were cultivated as ornamental plants, while the cultivation of crops for new commercial purposes began in 1911.

The pioneer of oil palm plantation in Indonesia is Adrien Hallet (Belgian), then the cultivation which he did followed by K.Schadt which marked the birth of oil palm plantation in Indonesia began to develop. The first oil palm plantations are located on the East Coast of Sumatra (Deli) and Aceh. Plantation area reaches 5,123 Ha.

At the time of Dutch occupation, oil palm plantations advanced rapidly to shift the dominance of African Countries exports at that time. Entering the Japanese occupation, oil palm development declined. The plantation land depreciated by 16% of the total land area so that the production of palm oil in Indonesia only reached 56,000 tons in 1948/1949, when in 1940 Indonesia exported 250,000 tons of palm oil.
In 1957, after the Netherlands and Japan left Indonesia, the government took over the plantation (for political and security reasons). To secure the course of production, the government placed military officers at every level of plantation management. The government also established BUMIL (Military Workers) which is a collaboration between plantation and military workers. Changes in management of plantations and socio-political conditions and domestic security are not conducive, resulting in decreased palm oil production and Indonesia's position as the world's largest supplier of palm oil displaced by Malaysia.

During the New Order government, plantation development was directed in order to create opportunities, improve the welfare of society and the country's foreign exchange sector. The government continues to encourage the opening of new land for plantations. Until 1980, the land area reached 294,560 Ha with CPO production (Crude Palm Oil) of 721 172 tons. Since then the land of oil palm plantation Indonesia is growing rapidly, especially the people's plantation. This is supported by the Government's policy of implementing the Nucleus Estate Company (PIR - BUN) program.

The area of ​​oil palm plantation continues to grow rapidly in Indonesia. This shows the increasing demand for processed products. Exports of palm oil (CPO) Indonesia, among others to the Netherlands, India, China, Malaysia and Germany, while for palm kernel oil products (PKO) more widely exported to the Netherlands, the United States and Brazil.