Smallholder Management at Its Best – Asian Agri Organizes Learning Visits

Asian Agri is one of the most successful palm oil producer in the ASEAN region. With more than 1 million tons per year, its ability to produce faster, combined with its remarkably efficient management practices and sustainable solutions, the company is among the leaders of the industry.

Part of the RGE, Asian Agri observes the “3 C’s”, attempting to do its best to help not only the company, but the community and the country as well. As part of this goal, the corporation has engaged in providing its best training, equipment and resources to local smallholder farmers, in the interest of helping them increase their yields and improve their business practices.

With the help of the Amanah Association – an association of smallholders who have been very successful in managing their own palm oil business – Asian Agri took to providing training visits and delivering equipment to less experienced smallholders, just starting out in the industry. Through spoken instructions and demonstrations, they have managed to impart a great deal of knowledge about sustainable practices, safety considerations, productivity, management initiatives and the various policies and regulations that need to be followed by all those who operate within the industry.

One of the main recent goals of Asian Agri was to provide a viable platform for smallholders such as those from Gonting Malaha to learn more about palm oil from the Amanah Association. The learning visit organized for this purpose was a complete success and deemed as an “eye-opening” experience by the secretary of Gonting Malaha, Mr. Munarwan.

Asian Agri’s contributions to this and other learning visits have been noted and acknowledged both by the Amanah Association and the various groups that Asian Agri hopes the Association will be able to offer guidance for smallholders in the near future. This indirect training method has proved successful in the past and, as both companies continue to refine their skills and abilities, the number of over 5,000 smallholder families that Asian Agri has thus far managed to help will likely grow exponentially in due time.