Musim Mas assisted the first independent smallholders to gain Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil (#ISPO) certification of the Ministry of Agriculture Decree No. 38,2020.

The company's smallholders program has been training smallholders to meet the same efficient farming standards as industrial plantations. The program also features modules covering agronomy and NDPE (#NoDeforestation, No Peat, and No Exploitation) commitments. Watch this video to find out how the program helps improve  sustainability, and the livelihoods of smallholder farmers.

Support for independent oil palm smallholder farmers has been a long-standing priority for Musim Mas. Since 2015, the company has been conducting training and providing assistance to smallholders to help them raise their productivity, acquire sustainable agricultural skills and the skills needed to gain access to financial services and supply chains.

Independent smallholder farmers manage over 40% or 4.2 million hectares of oil palm plantations in Indonesia. Roughly, this represents an area similar to size to that of Denmark, but the plantations are more geographically dispersed around the Indonesian archipelago. Indonesia is also the biggest producer of the commodity which is used in a wide array of industries from food to personal care, household products, and even construction.

In its latest drive for biodiversity conservation, Musim Mas has partnered with South East Asia Rainforest Research Partnership (SEARRP) to assess the impact of its conservation efforts over the past ten years, figure out its blind spots, and recalibrate where necessary.

Taking an honest look at the company’s conservation efforts is a “colossal task” but shows a commitment to improving both the company-wide and industry-wide conservation efforts as it involves analysing and making sense of the data across Musim Mas’ conservation areas, said director of SEARRP, Glen Reynolds (GR).