Thanks to partnership initiatives, palm oil communities in Indonesia ‘ including in North Sumatra, Riau and Jambi, where Asian Agri operates ‘ have developed well economically and socially.
To achieve such a development level is a long and arduous journey that required the government, local smallholders and other partnered stakeholders to face many challenges together.
Several decades ago when oil palm plantations had yet to develop as today’s have, a majority of oil palm farmers were transmigrants from Java under the New Order government’s transmigration program, which intensified between 1979 and 1984. The program was aimed at alleviating poverty and rebalancing and redistributing the population as well as social prosperity throughout Indonesia.
To ensure the program’s success, the government launched Perkebunan Inti Rakyat Transmigrasi, or PIR-Trans, in 1986, which brought together established plantation owners with transmigrated smallholders. Under the program, each settler was entitled to two hectares of empty land for palm oil cultivation.
