Top Indonesian Experts Will Speak at International Workshop on
Sustainable Palm Oil 2018
The International Workshop on Sustainable Palm Oil 2018 will generate great insights. It is because top Indonesian experts will gather in Riau in July 2018. In total, there are 12 Indonesian experts who will be invited to assist developing country representatives developing oil palm plantations in their home countries.
“The Indonesian Centre for Estate Crops Research and Development (ICECRD) will invite mid-echelon experts from various government agencies,” Head of Cooperation and Utilisation of Research and Development on Plantation, Jelfina Costansye said.
Twelve speakers that will speak at the Workshop are from ICECRD, Indonesian Palm Oil Research Centre (IPORC), Indonesia Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO) Secretariat and Indonesian Agency for Agricultural Research and Development (IAARD).
The experts will facilitate forum for exchanging experience on managing oil palm plantations of developing countries. Some of them are Malaysia and Thailand. There are also major palm oil producing countries such as Colombia, Nigeria, Ecuador, Guatemala and Papua New Guinea.
“The International Workshop on Sustainable Palm Oil will consist of studying materials on government policies, countering black campaigns, sustainable palm oil certification systems and technology innovation strategies to improve palm oil productivity that include topic on pest and post-harvest innovation,” Jelfina said.
“The event is only few months away, it means we must immediately conduct a visit to plantation location which will become field visit location. At least within a period of two weeks, we need to schedule a visit to Riau. For participants, invitation letters can be sent after finalisation of Terms of References (TOR),” she continued.
There are several criteria of participants invited to the Workshop. Some of them are English proficiency, experience in oil palm activity, submission of country paper and position at government agency.
Submission of country paper from each participating country is considered necessary to identify development of palm oil plantations in each country which can be used as a lesson-learned by other countries. The paper will also help resource persons identifying specific sub-topics that meet the needs of participating countries.
Position at government agency is equally important in the criteria of participants. Given that at the end of the Workshop there will be formulation of Action Plan, representatives of participating countries are expected to recommend the Action Plan to their own government.
Executive Secretary Pinkan Ovanita Tulung, Assistant Director for Programme Niken Supraba and Assistant Director for Administration and Finance Hasiholan Sirmandus appreciated contribution of ICECRD in the planning of event initiated by the Non-Aligned Movement Centre for South-South Technical Cooperation (NAM CSSTC).
“The Workshop is one of efforts against black campaign, because the expected outcome is increasing number of certified smallholders,” Pinkan said.
Meanwhile, Niken asked ICECRD to co-operate with NAM CSSTC representatives in Monitoring & Evaluation (MONEV) activities.
“In accordance with discussion during South-South Cooperation Coordination Meeting in Bali a few days ago, MONEV will be presented in two types, namely evaluation of participants and evaluation of implementing agencies. In addition to being report material, the filled questionnaires could also become observation material of researchers in ICECRD,” Niken said.
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