Palm Oil in Food and Energy Security as Well as Its Contributions to the SDGs

Second, palm oil has a high content of various vitamins, including, according to Palm Oil Human Nutrition (1989), the highest content of vitamin E of any vegetable oil, where tocopherol and tocotrienol found in palm oil are antioxidant elements in vitamin E and, according to Hariyadi (2010), it has a high vitamin A content that even exceeds that of carrots and tomatoes.

In addition, palm oil has a balanced content of essential fatty acids. As antioxidants, tocopherol and tocotrienol have been shown in research to have benefits in fighting cancer, cardiovascular disease, nerve cell degeneration, oxidative stress, and the immune system.

In terms of the world's vegetable oil needs, according to PASPI (2016), the world's vegetable oil requirement will reach 340 million tons by 2050. Sources of vegetable oil in the world other than palm oil include rapeseed oil, olive oil, sunflower oil, and soybean oil. Then, based on facts on the ground, for the same land area, oil palm has the highest productivity compared to other sources of vegetable oil.

Thus, palm oil is the most efficient to produce because it is more environmentally friendly and effective in land use. Given that there are many food derivative products that require palm oil, as well as the benefits in terms of nutrition and health, and the fact that palm oil has the highest effectiveness in land use, palm plantations are a source of food security that must be maintained and developed.

In addition to food, palm oil also contributes to the supply of energy. The B-20 mandate was issued by the government in 2015, while biodiesel comes from palm oil processing. In 2019, Indonesia was the largest palm oil producer in the world, which means that the biodiesel mandate provides benefits such as saving on diesel imports and building renewable energy sovereignty and reducing CO2 emissions. Palm oil plantation biomass is also used as a source of bioethanol or a substitute for premium gasoline, but bioethanol itself is still in the development phase.

The liquid waste from the Palm Oil Mill (PKS) can also be processed into biogas (electricity source) through biogas digester tanks, where the production of liquid waste reaches 223 million tons per year, so the potential biogas produced is 3179 million cubic gas/year. Biogas/bioelectricity production has been implemented in several PKSs, such as in several PKSs in the East Kalimantan province. The three renewable energies from palm oil can be substitutes for fossil fuels and as a form of support for national energy resilience.                  

On the other hand, related to human resources and socioeconomic development, palm oil plantations have contributed significantly to developing rural potential and improving the quality of human resources through employment. The development of palm oil plantations naturally involves the local population, so many people have their own palm oil plantations. This is evident from the number of People's Core Plantations (PIR), where the composition from national palm oil plantation businesses is 41% (Ministry of Agriculture, 2015).

The development of the oil palm plantation industry provides a large number of jobs and is a source of income for farmers and also has an impact on the general public. This is because the development of oil palm plantations leads to increased consumption, investment, and exports, creating greater benefits. Economic equity and poverty reduction in rural areas by oil palm plantations through the creation of job opportunities and business activities (SMEs) produce sales of materials such as fertilizers, plantation tools and machinery, pesticides, and food ingredients, of course.

The data in Figure 1 shows that the development of palm oil farmer family businesses has increased drastically, from only 142 thousand in 1990 to over 2 million units in 2016. It is not only oil palm plantation communities but also related SMEs whose owners are non-palm oil. SME growth is also very rapid. The growth of these new businesses is created because of the high demand for food and non-food items in rural areas around the plantations by the very large number of employees from the oil palm plantations. This can increase community income and improve income inequality between those working in oil palm and those who are not. In other words, there is a mutually beneficial and sustainable bond between the community on the oil palm plantations and the community that provides food ingredients, etc., such as livestock farmers, fishermen, etc.

From the above and considering that the palm oil industry is located in rural areas in 190 districts. The economic growth that occurs can be imagined, the presence of oil palm plantations can also reduce unemployment in rural areas because oil palm plantations are an economic sector with labor-intensive technology and are also relatively labor-intensive technology. The logic is that any increase in oil production is only possible if there is an increase in the use of labor as well.

In line with this, according to PASPI (2014) data, palm oil plantations in general are more accommodating of the backgrounds of the workforce available in rural areas so that they can easily absorb labor in the villages. This is in line with the data from the Ministry of Agriculture stating that from 2000, 2010, 2015, and 2016, there has been an increase in the number of workers to 2.1 million, 4.9 million, 8.0 million, and 8.2 million, respectively. this of course has a positive impact on increasing business quality and quantity of the workforce.

Another thing is that oil palm plantations are located in remote, underdeveloped and isolated areas, so palm oil companies will automatically open up roads or access bridges, build agricultural roads, build core plantations and plasma for the people (PIR), build employee housing, education and health facilities, social or public facilities. This argument is in line with the facts obtained by the Ministry of Transmigration and Labor (2014) that up to 2013 at least 50 isolated rural areas have developed into new growth areas and CPO production center bases. Goenadi (2008) that more than 6 million people involved in Indonesia's oil palm plantations have been lifted out of poverty.  In other words, if the economic capacity in the village increases, then both in the form of output, income, job creation not only on oil palm plantations but also in the economy as a whole, such as financial institutions, restaurants and hotels, food processing, and positive impacts in urban areas as well because of the dynamics of the community. So that the development of oil palm is not only directly developing villages but also indirectly developing cities.

It has been very clear that the positive impact of oil palm plantations is not only felt by the people who are directly involved, but also by non-oil palm communities, both in the villages and in the cities. This also shows that the oil palm plantation industry is inclusive.     

In sustainable palm oil development, ISPO (Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil) has been established & regulated in Regulation of the Minister of Agriculture No. 11/ Regulation of the Minister of Agriculture/ OT.140/3/2015 and RSPO (Rountable Sustainable Palm Oil) as optional. Thus, oil palm plantations have contributed to empowering community economic activities, social responsibility communities, the environment, and supporting food and renewable energy. It is time for Indonesia to realize this comparative advantage and must continue to be supported to accelerate Indonesia towards SDGs.

Source: InfoSawit.com