Social intervention in improving smallholders welfare in realizing eco-friendly palm oil plantations

Abstract

The Indonesian government continues to strive to increase the production, productivity, and quality of oil palm. Several studies on the welfare impact have shown that some smallholders benefit greatly in terms of income. Meanwhile, there are challenges to improve the welfare of smallholders, such as financial and knowledge barriers. Therefore, this article aims to identify social interventions’ contribution to improving farmer welfare and realizing environmentally friendly oil palm plantations. Social intervention can be interpreted as an effort to help in the form of planned changes to individuals, groups, and communities, which can come from government, corporate, third parties, communities, and individuals. This article contributes to define and gather social intervention perspective in improving smallholder welfare. The study employs a method approach combining literature review and descriptive analysis. These social intervention approaches, ideally embedded in a community strategy developed by the stakeholders in palm oil practice, have the potential to improving smallholder’s welfare in realizing eco-friendly palm oil plantations. To complement previous researches, this research is important because it is specific to enhance smallholder welfare through social intervention approach. Social intervention can be a form of law intervention, financial scheme and support, community programs, and corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs. Through that can help palm oil farmers, especially smallholders, to increase productivity while paying attention to environmental sustainability.