Yogyakarta — Indonesia’s palm oil industry faces significant challenges in sustaining productivity. Despite rising global demand for vegetable oils, productivity is hindered by ageing plantations, stagnant yields, and increasing threats from pests and diseases.
According to the Directorate General of Estates (2025), Indonesia’s oil palm plantations cover 16.9 million hectares, producing 46.55 million tons of Crude Palm Oil (CPO). This results in an average productivity of 2.75 tons of CPO per hectare per year.
These challenges highlight the need for more strategic approaches. The industry must shift from land expansion to intensification, increasing yields from existing plantations. Superior seeds, replanting programs, and enhanced research are essential to maintaining Indonesia’s competitiveness.
PT Astra Agro Lestari Tbk emphasised these points at the Indonesia Seed Industry Leadership Forum 2026, hosted by the Department of Agricultural Cultivation, Faculty of Agriculture, Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) in Yogyakarta. Astra Agro’s Senior Vice President of Research & Development, Cahyo Sri Wibowo, served as a panellist in the Executive Leadership Panel: Talent and Technology for the Next Decade.
Astra Agro views the seed sector as critical to overcoming productivity challenges. Seeds form the foundation for long-term plantation performance. As a result, developing superior seed varieties is a key strategy for increasing productivity without expanding plantation areas.
“Superior seeds are the key to building a new generation of highly productive and sustainable oil palm plantations,” said Cahyo.
To achieve this, Astra Agro prioritizes research and development in its long-term strategy. The company’s Research & Development center focuses on developing superior oil palm varieties to boost productivity and improve disease resistance.
In 2025, Astra Agro launched three new superior seed varieties: DxP AAL Nirmala MRG, DxP AAL Lestari MRG, and DxP AAL Sejahtera MRG. These build on the company’s earlier varieties, AAL Nirmala, AAL Lestari, and AAL Sejahtera, first released in 2020.
These new varieties were developed to address Ganoderma, a major disease affecting oil palm plantations that disrupts growth and reduces productivity. By offering planting materials with greater resistance, Astra Agro aims to provide solutions better suited to current plantation conditions and industry needs.
According to Cahyo, developing superior varieties involves not only maximizing production but also improving disease resistance, cultivation efficiency, and sustainable productivity throughout the planting cycle. This is especially important as many plantations enter the replanting phase.
Astra Agro is currently implementing a large-scale replanting program. For the company, replanting is a long-term strategy to enhance productivity. It enables improvements in planting material quality, cultivation systems, and the use of superior genetics to create more productive and disease-resistant plantations.
“Replanting is an opportunity to strengthen the foundation of plantation productivity. When ageing palms are replaced with superior varieties, what is renewed is not only the crop itself but also the future of the plantation. This is why the right seeds, strong research, and increasingly precise plantation management are so important,” Cahyo explained.
Astra Agro believes national palm oil challenges require practical, measurable innovations aligned with field realities. Developing superior varieties, implementing well-planned replanting programs, strengthening research, and fostering collaboration among industry, government, associations, and universities are essential to strengthening Indonesia’s seed ecosystem.
“We need to work together to build a resilient, competitive, and sustainable Indonesian seed ecosystem because sustainable seeds are the foundation of a sustainable future for the palm oil industry,” Cahyo stated.
Through these efforts, Astra Agro promotes higher productivity from existing plantations and delivers solutions that help Indonesia’s palm oil industry grow more efficiently, productively, and sustainably.
Source: Majalahhortus.com
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