Cooperative Minister Emphasises Acceleration of Cooperative-Based Agrarian Reform
The Minister of Cooperatives, Ferry Juliantono, officially opened the second National Smallholder Plantation Conference at the Ministry of Cooperatives Auditorium in Jakarta today. This strategic forum brought together the Indonesian Farmers Union (SPI), the Oil Palm Farmers Union (SPKS), the Indonesian Farmers Alliance (API), the Association of Indonesian Oil Palm Farmer Organisations (POPSI), the Indonesian Human Rights Committee for Social Justice (IHSC), and Sawit Watch.
In his address, he emphasised the importance of the second National Smallholder Plantation Conference as a primary foundation for generating concrete recommendations to accelerate the formation of cooperative business entities and pave the way for the downstreaming of smallholder plantations.
“It is our great hope that this second National Smallholder Plantation Conference can serve as our basis for taking steps to accelerate the modernisation and downstreaming of smallholder plantations,” stated Ferry Juliantono in a written statement on Monday (21/09/2026).
He highlighted the ongoing inequalities that shadow the governance of the national palm oil industry. “Through this forum, we are encouraging cooperatives that possess palm oil plantations not to stop at processing Fresh Fruit Bunches (FFB) only, but also to possess their own Crude Palm Oil (CPO) factories,” he said.
He cited the success of KUD Sejahtera in Musi Banyuasin, South Sumatra, which currently operates a CPO factory with a capacity of 45 tonnes per hour. “It is hoped that this good practice can be replicated by other networks of farmer groups through assistance from the Revolving Fund Management Agency (LPDB) and management incubation provided by academics and alumni of the Indonesian Cooperative Institute (IKOPIN),” he explained.
Meanwhile, the General Chairman of the SPI, Henry Saragih, asserted that the second National Smallholder Plantation Conference serves as a crucial momentum to ensure that Agrarian Reform Object (TORA) lands—particularly those from the release of forest areas and former concessions—are truly managed by smallholder plantations through independent cooperative vehicles.
Henry added that the Ministry of Cooperatives’ support in facilitating this conference is a vital stepping stone for the consolidation of farmer organisations to integrate land ownership with sustainable business models. “Smallholder plantations built in the future must no longer treat cooperatives as mere appendages. Cooperatives must be the primary institution implementing the mandate of agrarian reform earnestly,” Henry concluded.
The second National Smallholder Plantation Conference is scheduled to proceed with representatives from the Ministry of ATR/BPN, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Forestry, Bappenas, and the Cooperative Revolving Fund Management Agency (LPDB) to formulate joint policy recommendations.
The event was attended by the Secretary of the Ministry of Cooperatives Ahmad Zabadi, General Chairman of SPI Henry Saragih, General Chairman of the Oil Palm Farmers Union Sabarudin, Deputy for SME Development of the Ministry of MSMEs Bagus Rachman, the Board of Directors of LPDB Koperasi, Rector of the Indonesian Cooperative Institute (IKOPIN) Prof. Yudi Aziz, as well as leaders of farmer organisations, plantation cooperatives, and conference participants.