Efforts to Empower Farmer Groups on Smallholder Oil Palm Plantations Facing the EUDR Anti-Deforestation Policy

Abstract

The European Union has issued an anti-deforestation policy, outlined in the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), for several commodities, including palm oil products. This policy can lead to the exclusion of products from smallholder oil palm plantations from the global palm oil supply chain. This study aims to formulate efforts to empower farmer groups on smallholder oil palm plantations in response to the EUDR anti-deforestation policy. The methodology used in this study is a qualitative method, also known as an interpretive method, because the research data prioritizes interpretation of data found in the field. The results show that the negative impacts of the EUDR policy can be overcome through farmer group empowerment programs on smallholder oil palm plantations. Empowerment can be carried out through technical empowerment that focuses on increasing the capacity of individuals and farmer groups to master skills, technology, and agricultural practices that comply with EUDR standards. Technical empowerment can be carried out through training in geotagging and digitizing plantation data, implementing Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), and sustainability certification. Empowerment can also be carried out through institutional empowerment, emphasizing the strengthening of farmer organizations as a collective forum to overcome EUDR obstacles by strengthening the organizational capacity of farmer groups, producer cooperatives, multi-party partnerships and collective certification