Organised smallholders achieved full MSPO certification by end-2020

KUALA LUMPUR: The implementation of the Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) certification for organised smallholders has been fully achieved by the end of 2020, the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) said.

It said the certification carried out with the involvement of eight federal and state government agencies entailed the participation of 233,191 smallholders with total oil palm cultivated areas of 724,633.32 hectares.

The agencies involved are the Federal Land Development Authority with a total cultivated area of 472,023.91 hectares (100,060 people); Federal Land Consolidation and Rehabilitation Authority (138,816.32 hectares; 89,440 people), Rubber Industry Smallholders Development Authority (25,973.89 hectares; 14,389 people).

Both the MPOA and the MEOA added that lockdown restrictions that the sector needed to adhere to include restricted access into the estates, strict SOPs in movements of food, supply and services, including fertilisers and other agrochemicals, spare parts and machinery into the operations.

“There will also be restricted movement of workers and all other employees out of the estates, incorporating strict social distancing in estate operations, use of face masks in estate operations, no social gatherings or other group activities within the estates, and additional measures to promote cleanliness and personal hygiene,” they added.

The associations called upon their members (combined membership land bank of MPOA and MEOA represents 43 per cent of the total Sabah oil palm planted area) and all other planters in Sabah to adhere to the above measures and accelerate their swab screening to cover all their workers and the larger community in their respective operations.

Sabah is Malaysia’s largest palm oil-producing state and out of the current 5.8 million hectares covered with oil palm (nationwide), 1.54 million hectares are located in Sabah, involving thousands of planters and tens of thousands of smallholders.