Gapoktan Profile

GAPOKTAN Tanjung Sehati Desa Mekar Jaya Tabir Selatan

Kabupaten Merangin Propinsi Jambi

Indonesia

GAPOKTAN

TANJUNG

SEHATI ADOPTING SUSTAINABILITY AS CULTURE

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History of Gapoktan Tanjung Sehati

Gapoktan Tanjung Sehati was officially

founded in 2009 under the name of

Gapoktan Sawit Lestari. The organization

aims at promoting sustainable palm oil

production in Jambi Province to improve

the welfare of independent farmers. Since

2013 it has turned into a legal entity

(corporation #80 dated 8 May 2013). The

name was changed from Gapoktan Sawit

Lestari to Gapoktan Tanjung Sehati – the

former having already been registered at

the district government – because the

government does not allow a village to have

more than one gapoktan. Gapoktan

Tanjung Sehati was founded and initiated

by farmers. Currently, it incorporates 6

farmer’s groups, covering 227 households,

and manages 346.57 Ha of lands. In fact,

there are 500 independent farmer

households in Mekar Jaya Village but some

have refused to join due to their bad past

experience with organizations.

The main objective of the creation of the

gapoktan is to address problems faced by

farmers, in particular the independent oil

palm farmers in Mekar Jaya Village. Among

the problems to be addressed are as

follows:

1. The low price of independent

farmer’s fresh fruit bunches: they

were priced IDR200-300/kg lower.

While the difference did not seem

much, if multiplied by the total

production, it was quite a large

amount of money the farmers could

have enjoyed.

2. Little access to information, leading

to poor knowledge of oil palm

cultivation. Very often, the farmers

managed their plantations based

solely on their experience, leading to

poor harvests and low prices. This

lack of knowledge was obvious with

regard to the quality of seeds they

“As smallholders, we have

never imagined we could

obtain the RSPO certificate for

successfully implementing the

RSPO principles and criteria –

given the sheer number of them

– and we have never dreamed

as well that the changes we

have made – particularly in

changing the way we view

plantations and manage

organizations – have also

changed how the government

view independent farmers in

Jambi Province.” Mr. Solikin,

Secretary of Gapoktan Tanjung

Sehati.

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were using. About 80% of farmers in

the province used a type of seed

called Dura, with no alternatives due

to the lack of access to information

on good seeds and access to getting

them.

3. Poor support from the local

government and even from the

companies operating in the vicinity,

especially with regard to support for

working capital, market and capacity

building.

At the core of the problems, according to

the farmers, was that they were not

organized. This led to:

1. High dependence on middlemen to

market their products. Even to date,

almost all the independent farmers

in the province have relied on

middlemen. As a matter of fact,

middlemen are not to blame

because they have been helping the

farmers to market the products

while the government, which should

have been there to help, has never

been present. They have also been

helping the farmers with working

capital while the government seems

to have never thought of lending a

hand. This means that middlemen

have been the farmer’s ‘savior’, and

are also better than the government

although they have never made the

farmers prosper.

2. No access to information, markets

and others that would enable the

farmers to change their conditions.

Organizing themselves is the key to

all these blocked opportunities. The

government, companies and other

parties will never support farmers

individually. To gain access, for

example, to superior seeds, farmers

should be incorporated in an

organization. To sell the fruits to

companies, farmers have to have a

contract with them, which requires,

among others, that farmers be

incorporated in an organization.

To address the problems facing them, in

particular those relating to their products,

the independent farmers of Mekar Jaya

initiated the creation of an organization in

the form of a gapoktan.

Background of the farmers

The farmers of Gapoktan Tanjung Sehati are

migrants relocated from Java under the

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government’s transmigration program

during 1980-1984. Each was given 2.25 Ha

of land to grow perennials (LU2), 1 Ha to

grow food crops (LU1) and 0.5 Ha for

housing. In 1986, PT Sari Aditya Loka (an oil

palm company subsidiary of the ASTRA

Group) began operating in the area under

the nucleus estate scheme. The 2.25-

hectare lands were then ‘partnered’ by the

company (i.e. used as the company’s

smallholding [kebun plasma]). The other

government-given lands remains to be

managed by farmers to grow food crops,

vegetables and other plants.

Throughout the 2000s the migrants also

planted their 1-hectare lands with oil palm

as the lands were not suitable to grow

wetland species such as rice, which they

used to grow in Java. Nine villages in the

area now have independent farmers

incorporated in a gapoktan (Gapoktan

Tanjung Sehati) with the average size of

plantations being 700 Ha per village. The

situation has encouraged some neighboring

villages to start building their own

organizations although they have not

thought of implementing the RSPO

principles and criteria, let alone to obtain

the RSPO certificate.

Gapoktan Tanjung Sehati and a

sustainable palm oil initiative

Since its establishment, Gapoktan Tanjung

Sehati has been actively taking part in

RSPO’s meetings. Its first involvement was

in the 7-th Meeting in Bali in 2008. Then,

the Chair of the Gapoktan presented in the

8th Meeting in Istana Kuala Lumpur Hotel in

2009. Since then, Gapoktan Tanjung Sehati

has been interested in getting involved to

promote sustainable palm oil by improving

Organic Pertilizer application in plantation

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the organization and agricultural practices

and has started to take environmental

preservation into consideration. Their

efforts to implement the RSPO Principles

and Criteria were not easy as the RSPO

itself could not guarantee better prices for

RSPO-certified fresh fruit bunches.

Another difficult thing was that the

company, which had been helping the

farmers (i.e. providing agricultural training

and buying gapoktan’s products), was a

non-RSPO member, thus buying the

products at the price set by the

government, not that set for RSPO-certified

products. Although PT SAL is not an RSPO

member, the gapoktan expresses deep

appreciation for its efforts to help the

farmers by providing agricultural trainings

and other trainings for free. Such trainings

have greatly helped the farmers to

implement good agricultural practices.

Gapoktan Tanjung Sehati has been

successful in implementing the RSPO

Principles and Criteria, indicated by the

granting of an RSPO certificate to their

members’ operation on 16 June 2014. The

member farmers are in fact fully aware that

sustainable palm oil goes beyond technical

implementation of the principles and

criteria, and the certification, and that it is

about how to adopt best agricultural and

corporate practices. For them, certification

is an ongoing process to mainstream the

principles of sustainability.

The long process in implementing the

RSPO’s principles and criteria has inspired

the farmers to manage their lands wisely,

avoiding chemical-based exploitation. The

farmers have also been implementing some

sustainable practices that are not listed in

the RSPO Principles and Criteria, among

others:

1. Mainstreaming organic fertilizers

(cow dung) instead of chemical

ones. Since 2012, the gapoktan has

been provided by the district

government of Merangin with 35

cows to breed and a composter unit.

The cows have since multiplied and

their urine and dung have been used

to fertilize the lands. For the

farmers, these organic fertilizers not

only reduce the fertilizing cost but

also improve the soil, maintaining its

health and fertility and helping to

produce good fresh fruit bunches.

2. Mutual aid (gotong royong) culture:

Once abandoned, the mutual aid

culture has been revived and

continuously promoted. Among the

work done cooperatively is the

building of the so-called production

road (i.e. to ease transport of their

products) and land clearing. The

revival of the culture has also

revived the social ties, which was

once diminishing.

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Gapoktan Tanjung Sehati as a teacher

and school for independent farmers in

Jambi Province

Along with Yayasan SETARA Jambi,

Gapoktan Tanjung Sehati has been

organizing trainings to increase the

institutional capacity and knowledge of the

RSPO of other farmers in the province. The

objective is to make the farmers more

prosperous while maintaining the

sustainability of their livelihoods for their

next generations. Gapoktan Tanjung Sehati

serves not only as a teacher but also a

school for independent farmers who are

eager to learn directly how to organize

themselves, manage and strengthen the

organization, as well as making it

independent. Gapoktan Tanjung Sehati

warmly welcomes any farmer who wants to

learn.

We are available at :

www.setarajambi.org

facebook : Gapoktan Tanjung Sehati