Friday, November 14, 2008

Menyuburkan Lahan Gambut dengan Mikroba


Jumat, 14 November 2008 | 22:05 WIB
JAKARTA, JUMAT - Pemanfaatan lahan di Indonesia sejak dulu telah salah arah. Lahan subur, terutama di Jawa, tak terbendung terus berubah fungsi ke nonpertanian. Sementara itu, kebutuhan pangan yang terus meningkat memaksa pemanfaatan lahan kering dan marginal yang umumnya di luar Jawa. Di sinilah rekayasa teknologi berperan untuk mengubahnya menjadi lahan subur. Salah satu yang kini gencar disasari adalah lahan gambut.

Dalam ASEAN-China Workshop on the Development of Effective Microbial Consortium Poten in Peat Modification di Jakarta, Senin (10/11), tim peneliti mikroba dari Pusat Teknologi Bioindustri BPPT (Badan Pengkajian dan Penerapan Teknologi), yang diketuai Gatyo Angkoso, melaporkan keberhasilan mereka menyuburkan lahan gambut dengan menambahkan limbah selulosa dari perkebunan kelapa sawit dan memasukkan secara bersamaan beberapa jenis isolat mikroba tertentu.

Perlakuan ini dapat mengurangi tingkat keasaman atau menaikkan pH lahan gambut dari rata-rata 3,5 menjadi 5,5, jelas Direktur Pusat Teknologi Bioindustri, Koesnandar, yang juga terlibat dalam riset tersebut, di Rasau dan Siantan, Kalimantan Barat. Selama ini lahan gambut secara alami memang tidak subur karena memiliki keasaman tinggi atau kebasaannya (pH) rendah, antara 2,8 dan 4,5. Sifat lain lahan gambut yang tidak menguntungkan adalah nilai kapasitas tukar kation dan kandungan organik yang tinggi.

Penyuburan lahan gambut dilakukan dengan memasukkan konsorsia atau beberapa kelompok mikroba. Dijelaskan Diana Nurani, peneliti, riset yang dilakukan sejak tahun 2006 berhasil diisolasi puluhan mikroba di dua daerah di Pontianak itu. Dari puluhan ditemukan empat kelompok mikroba yang memiliki kinerja yang baik dalam meningkatkan kebasaan lahan gambut.

Ditambahkan Koesnandar, mikroba itu ditemukan di lahan gambut, pada limbah kelapa sawit, dan kotoran sapi. Dari efeknya pada tanah gambut, konsorsia mikroba itu bersimbiosa mutualisme. Penelitian lebih lanjut akan dilakukan untuk meneliti peran dan karakteristik masing- masing mikroba.

Aplikasi empat kelompok mikroba pada tanah gambut selain dapat meningkatkan pH, juga terbukti memperbaiki struktur tanah dan meningkatkan ketersediaan mineral. Keuntungan lainnya adalah mengganti cara konvensional, yaitu pembakaran yang biasa dilakukan petani di lahan gambut untuk meningkatkan pH tanah gambut.

Indonesia memiliki kawasan gambut keempat terluas di dunia, yakni 20,6 juta hektar. Peringkat pertama adalah Kanada (170 juta ha), Uni Soviet (150 juta ha), dan Amerika Serikat (40 juta ha). Lahan gambut di Indonesia terbanyak dijumpai di Sumatera (35 persen), Kalimantan (30 persen), dan Papua (30 persen). (YUN)
Sumber : Kompas Cetak

source: kompas.com

Greenpeace Diusir dari Pelabuhan Dumai


Jumat, 14 November 2008 | 21:23 WIB
PEKANBARU, JUMAT - Kapal MV Esperanza milik organisasi lingkungan Greenpeace terpaksa keluar dari pelabuhan angkut minyak sawit (crude palm oil/CPO) Dumai, Riau. Dua tug boat Administrasi Pelabuhan (Adpel) Dumai, Jumat (14/11) siang mendorong kapal tersebut yang sejak awal minggu ini menghalangi kapal pengangkut minyak kelapa sawit yang kleuar masuk ke pelabuhan tersebut.

Esperanza menghalangi pengapalan CPO dari Dumai sebagai aksi protes terhadap kerusakan hutan yang dilakukan perusahaan sawit di Riau. Juru Kampanye Media Greenpeace Asia Tenggara Nabiha Shahab mengatakan, aksi tersebut sengaja dilakukan untuk menghalangi kapal tanker Isola Corallo memuat CPO di Dumai.

Kapal Isola Corallo rencananya akan memuat CPO milik Sinar Mas tujuan Rotterdam, Belanda. Namun, sejak tanker tiba di Dumai pada Rabu silam (12/11), Greenpeace telah menghadangnya dengan aksi seorang aktivis mengikatkan diri di rantai jangkar kapal.

"Awalnya kami berencana menempati pelabuhan selama sepekan tapi dua tug boat mengusir dengan cara mendorong kami," kata Nabiha. Aksi tersebut merupakan protes terhadap perusahaan Sinar Mas yang terus menebangi hutan gambut di Papua, Kalimantan, dan Sumatera.

Esperanza akhirnya mengalah dan kapal tanker yang dihalangi kini sudah memasuki pelabuhan. Belum ada kabar adanya penahanan dari pihak kepolisian akibat aksi tersebut. Sebelumnya, aktivis lingkungan Greenpeace juga melakukan aksi yang sama dengan mengikat diri di rantai jangkar kapal tanker CPO Gran Couva empat hari lalu. Aksi tersebut akhirnya juga dihentikan paksa oleh polisi setempat.

WAH
Sumber : Antara
source: kompas.com

Plantations struggle as CPO prices in free fall

Manggi Habir, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Plantation companies are one of the first to suffer from the deepening global downturn. And, as the year end nears, it is plantations with scale of production, the right mix of tree maturity and a conservative balance sheet (low debt and high cash levels), that are best able to weather the storm.

It was only a few months back, that the sector's outlook still looked so bright. Crude palm oil (CPO) prices were on an unprecedented upward climb. Fueled by high economic growth in India and China CPO prices soared to reach a peak of US$1,200 per ton by mid-year, about double its historical prices in the $350 to $600 per ton range.

Reflecting this trend, the share price of Indonesia's three top listed plantation companies, PT Astra Agro Lestari (AALI), PT Bakrie Sumatera Plantations (UNSP) and PT London Sumatera (LSIP) also doubled in 2007, reaching respective peaks of Rp 28,000, Rp 2,275 and Rp 10,650 per share by early 2008.

However, with the consolidation of the global downturn in the second semester, these earlier gains disappeared in a couple of months. CPO prices began their steep decline after June, reaching a low of $500 per ton by November. Reflecting this drop, share prices of the above three companies also fell by more than 70 percent, to reach lows of Rp 8,550, Rp 340 and Rp 2,725 per share, respectively.

This has been a painful awakening for plantation managers after seeing margins and profitability levels rise. So what has been the impact? First, there has been the drop in revenue with falling commodity prices. Costs, on the other hand, are fairly fixed and not easy to adjust downward in this sector. This ultimately translates into narrowing margins and profitability.

For instance, Astra Agro Lestari, the largest of the three plantation companies, showed a steady decline in quarterly net income from Rp 827 billion in the first quarter of the year, to Rp 770 billion in the second and further down to Rp 532 billion in the third quarter.

How have they responded? In the short-term, the response has been on finding ways to control costs and push them downward. This is difficult in a business with a long business cycle. Palm oil tree crops take 3-4 years to plant and grow to first production level, during which time it is all cash outflow. This is then followed by another 6-7 years for a tree to reach its maturity and generate peak yields.

Interestingly, the plantation cost structure has undergone a fundamental change with the rise in oil prices. In 2006, the largest cost component was labor, accounting for 39 percent of total cost.

However, by 2008, with rising gas prices, fertilizer costs have rapidly grown to replace labor as the largest cost component. Fertilizer, which previously accounted for just 14 percent of total cost, now takes up 34 percent of the CPO cost structure.

As a result, it has become the major focus in the sector's cost cutting efforts. Efforts are underway to use fertilizers more efficiently and to look at replacing costly chemical-based fertilizers with natural organic compost waste. The drop in oil and gas prices should help bring down fertilizer prices, although companies have yet to notice and confirm this trend.

In the long term, there is a focus on improving tree crop yields by investing in higher yielding and disease resistant seeds. Currently Fresh Fruit Bunch or FFB yields are about 18.2 tons per year per hectare. This palm fruit is then further processed by mills yielding an average of about 4.2 tons of CPO per year per hectare.

Most Indonesian plantation companies limit their activity to the upstream part of the value chain, focusing on planting, harvesting and processing palm fruits into CPO. Rarely have they ventured further downstream to vertically integrate into the next phase of processing, for example, into cooking oil or cosmetics, where the value added and larger margins are to be found.

There is also little discussion thesedays about investing in biofuel processing plants, with the decline in oil prices.

Plantation owners explain that moving downstream would require extensive investment. This is not limited to large processing plants but also to building distribution networks and marketing capability, as well as investing in creating strong brand names. This, they argue, requires a different skill base.

Besides, they also say, there is much to do already at their end of the value chain. The argument is that it would be more prudent if they focused on what they are good at, which is expanding and investing in their existing processing mill capacity, improving efficiency in their planting phase and increasing yields and then further seeking additional land or acquiring other plantations to plant more hectares and expand their capacity.

Astra Agro operates some 235,000 hectares of tree crops across the islands of Sumatra, Kalimantan and Sulawesi. About 80 percent of its tree crops are mature, with the remaining 20 percent in the planting or immature phase. In a downturn cycle planters prefer to have a larger mature proportion in their tree crop mix as it minimizes the heavy cash outflow found in the initial phase.

With a large mature area, there is also more cash flow generation, even with lower prices. This is why plantation companies that are relatively new or have a larger immature proportion of tree crops are suffering more in this downturn cycle.

Another cost that needs to be managed well in a downturn is financing costs. All commodity companies that face volatile commodity prices tend to have conservative balance sheets, carrying low debt levels in proportion to their capital. Astra Agro, for example, has Rp 1.9 trillion in cash as of September 30, 2008, and practically no debt.

It is too early to tell whether the recession will be long enough to encourage consolidation in this sector. What is sure is that those with scale, an appropriate mix between mature and immature tree crops and a conservative balance sheet should be able to ride out the storm more comfortably than others.

Manggi Habir is Contributing Editor at The Jakarta Post

source: thejakartapost.com

Slowdown jolts RI's commodity-heavy economy

The Indonesian economy has been generating lucrative profits from the soaring prices of agricultural commodities during the last two years. Following increasing dependency on this business, the recent slump in commodity prices has severely impacted on the economy. The Jakarta Post business section features a special report on commodity sector problems. Here are the reports:


For seasonal farmer Alex Sinaga of Tanjungjabung Barat regency, Jambi, the world is tumbling down around his ears after knowing that his October revenue has dropped by a factor of 10 times following the plummeting global prices for palm oil.

Having previously enjoyed a monthly income of Rp 5 million (US$434 million), six times higher than a university-graduate civil servant in his province, Alex now has to end his shopping spree earlier than expected.

In Jambi, fresh oil palm fruit bunches are now sold at Rp 200 per kilogram, having dropped like a stone from Rp 1,500 per kilogram a few months ago.

Alex is just one example of how Indonesians living in rural areas have already taken a severe knock from the global economic crisis earlier than the government has estimated, since the government initially concluded that the full negative impact would not be felt until the first quarter of next year.

As one of the world's top producers of palm oil, rubber, cocoa and coffee, the Indonesian economy, Southeast Asia's biggest, was making good profits from high agricultural commodity prices earlier this year.

In the first nine months of the year, exports of crude palm oil (CPO), for example, reached $12.12 billion, or 14.5 percent of the country's non-oil and gas exports, according to the Central Statistics Agency.

"Commodity prices soared since 2007 up until early 2008. Clearly, Indonesia benefited significantly from commodity trade, as proven by exports and industry expansion," said World Bank chief economist and senior vice president Justin Yifu Lin recently,

The magnitude of agricultural commodity business is even more significant when remembering that it is estimated to have employed 99.9 million workers, both seasonal and permanent, according to Siswono Yudhohusodo, chairman of the Indonesian Farmers Union (HKTI) advisory board.

Producing an estimated 18.5 million tons of palm oil this year from more than six million hectares of plantation, Indonesia is the world's largest producer of the commodity.

However, with slumping demand from the world's largest importers of palm oil -- China, India and Europe -- local palm oil farmers are now likely to seek more loans from the pawnshop to help ends meet.

The slowing demand has sent the Malaysian CPO benchmark price down to 1,505 ringgit ($419.89) per ton on Wednesday from its peak of 4,486 per ton on March 4, as reported by Bloomberg.

Indonesian Association of Oil Palm Producers (Gapki) chairman Akmaluddin Hasibuan said the plummeting prices had been exacerbated recently by moves from several countries to intentionally default on purchase contracts due to slow demand.

Among the importers carrying out this practice are 30 Indian companies.

"The Indian companies are being unethical by defaulting on their import contracts that have consequently affected our exporters as well as our farmers," Akmaluddin told The Jakarta Post recently.

"We have filed complaints with the Indian government and Indian oil palm-related trade associations but we haven't received any response yet," he said.

There are also contract defaulters in the European Union countries and China.

Indonesia and Malaysia together produce around 85 percent of the world's CPO and account for 88 percent of global CPO exports.

Last year, Indonesia and Malaysia produced about 17 million tons and 15.7 million tons of CPO respectively.

Indonesia recorded exports of $5.5 billion in 2007, with more than 75 percent of its palm oil output being exported as CPO, while by contrast Malaysia posted a higher export revenue of $10.4 billion, with 80 percent of its output exported as value-added products.

In a bid to help bolster the CPO price, Indonesia and Malaysia agreed last week to cut palm oil output by 75,000 tons and around 500,000 to 600,000 tons respectively next year, according to the Agriculture Ministry's director general for plantations, Achmad Manggabarani.

Indonesia also plans to replant 50,000 hectares of oil palm trees while Malaysia plans to replant 250,000 hectares next year.

Achmad hoped the prices of palm oil could then reach its commercially viable level of around $700 to $800 per metric ton.

Meanwhile, Indonesian Vegetable Oil Producers Association (Gimni) executive director Sahat Sinaga said the export drop had actually been developing since 2006 when European countries began to use soybean and sunflower oil as alternatives to CPO for feedstock for biofuel.

Furthermore, he said, the financial crisis and economic downturn had led some foreign buyers to stop ordering CPO due to the drying up of liquidity in their banks, which had previously helped to finance CPO purchases.

"Capacity utilization of CPO production is expected to decline to 48 percent by the end of this year, from 52 percent forecast earlier," said Sahat.

Rubber, coffee and cacao are all experiencing similar problems to those experienced by the CPO sector.

Indonesian Rubber Association (Gapkindo) executive director Suharto Honggokusumo said the price of natural rubber reached its peak at $3.3 per kilogram on June 27 before slumping to its lowest point at $1.53 per kilogram on Sept. 16.

The price has since failed to recover.

With rubber production amounting to 2.7 million tons last year, Indonesia is the world's second biggest rubber producer after Thailand.

Last week, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand , which produce between them 70 percent of global natural rubber production, jointly agreed to cut rubber production by 210,000 tons next year by replanting trees.

Robusta coffee also fell to its lowest point at $1.5 per kilogram after peaking at $2.5 per kilogram around three months ago, according to the Indonesian Coffee Exporter Association (AEKI) chairman Hassan Wijaya.

Indonesia is the fourth largest producer of coffee after Vietnam , Colombia and Brazil, producing around 450,000 tons per year of which 250,000 tons are exported.

Cacao also dipped to around $1,930 per ton from a record high of $3,200 per ton around August, according to Indonesian Cacao Association (Askindo) secretary general Zulhefi Sikumbang.

Zulhefi, however, said cacao farmers were relatively safe from price volatility.

"Our farmers are still able to earn profits by selling cacao for around Rp 15,000 to Rp 16,000 per kilogram. They would suffer losses if the price dipped below Rp 11,000 to Rp 12,000 per kilogram," he said.

Indonesia is the world's third largest cacao producer with an estimated production of 500,000 tons. Ivory Coast and Ghana are the first and second largest. JP/Mustaqim Adamrah

source: thejakartapost.com

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Greenpeace Lanjutkan Aksi Protes di Dumai

Kamis, 13 November 2008 | 09:02 WIB
PEKANBARU, KAMIS - Aktivis Greenpeace tampaknya tidak kapok melakukan kampanye lingkungan di Provinsi Riau dan itu ditandai dengan kembali melakukan aksi bergelantungan di jangkar kapal tanker minyak sawit mentah (crude palm oil/CPO) di Pelabuhan Dumai.

Juru Kampanye Hutan Greenpeace Asia Tenggara, Bustar Maitar, ketika dihubungi Kamis (13/11), mengatakan, sasaran aksi penghadangan kini tertuju pada kapal MT Iso Corralo yang berbendera Malta.

Dikabarkan, aksi mengikat diri di rantai jangkar tersebut sudah dilakukan sejak Rabu malam (12/11) kemarin. Kapal tersebut direncanakan akan memuat minyak sawi mentah milik PT Sinar Mas untuk dikapalkan ke Rotterdam, Belanda.

"Aksi ini merupakan protes terhadap Sinar Mas yang terus menebangi hutan gambut di Papua, Kalimantan dan Sumatera," ujarnya.

Sebelumnya, aktivis lingkungan Greenpeace juga melakukan aksi yang sama dengan mengikat diri di rantai jangkar kapal tanker CPO Gran Couva tiga hari lalu. Aksi tersebut dihentikan paksa oleh polisi setempat.

source: kompas.com

Greenpeace: Organisasi Kelapa Sawit Tameng Perusak Lingkungan


Kamis, 13 November 2008 | 17:13 WIB
PEKANBARU, KAMIS - LSM lingkungan, Greenpeace, menyatakan organisasi internasional produsen kelapa sawit Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) hanya sebagai tameng anggotanya yang tetap merusak lingkungan. Juru kampanye Greenpeace Asia Tenggara, Bustar Maitar, dihubungi dari Pekanbaru Kamis (13/11) mengatakan, berdasarkan penelitian Greenpeace, RSPO tidak lebih dari sekedar tameng agar perusahaan yang masuk dalam organisasi itu terkesan ramah lingkungan.

Sertifikasi RSPO memang menuntut perusahaan mematuhi ketentuan standar mengenai perkebunan, namun tidak melarang pembukaan hutan bahkan di lahan gambut sekali pun. Padahal lahan gambut merupakan faktor penting dalam memerangi perubahan iklim.

Pembukaan lahan, pengeringan, dan pembakaran hutan-hutan gambut telah menempatkan Indonesia sebagai penghasil emisi gas rumah kaca terbesar ketiga dunia. Sementara anggota-anggota RSPO tidak diwajibkan mengubah perilaku kerjanya.

"Dengan laju pembabatan dan pembakaran hutan saat ini, hutan dataran rendah Indonesia sebagian besar akan hilang dalam waktu 15 tahun mendatang, standar RSPO tidak memadai, dan kerangka kerjanya tidak akan memecahkan masalah deforestasi di Asia Tenggara. Industri bersama pemerintah harus mengambil tindakan segera untuk melindungi hutan kita," ujar Bustar.

Salah satu perusahaan bersertifikasi RSPO, United Plantations, yang juga pemasok Nestle dan Unilever, terlibat kegiatan deforestasi di lahan gambut Kalimantan yang rentan, Papua, dan mempunyai rencana-rencana perluasan perkebunan yang agresif.

Greenpeace, kata Bustar, hingga kini masih melakukan penghadangan terhadap sebuah kapal tanker pengangkut CPO di pelabuhan Dumai. Seorang aktivis Greenpeace sejak Rabu malam (12/11) menguncikan dirinya ke rantai jangkar kapal Isola Corallo untuk mencegah kapal merapat ke pelabuhan. Kapal berbendera Malta itu dikabarkan akan mengangkut CPO milik perusahaan Sinar Mas tujuan Rotterdam, Belanda.

WAH
Sumber : Antara

source: kompas.com

Sumsel Dapat Tambahan Urea 35.000 Ton

Kamis, 13 November 2008 | 19:07 WIB

PALEMBANG, KAMIS — Provinsi Sumatera Selatan mendapat tambahan pupuk urea bersubsidi untuk tanaman pangan sebanyak 35.000 ton. Pemerintah telah menambah alokasi pupuk urea bersubsidi di 20 provinsi termasuk Sumsel sebanyak 200.000 ton, untuk mengatasi kekurangan pupuk pada musim tanam rendeng.

Kepala Pemasaran Pusri Daerah (PPD) Sumsel PT Pupuk Sriwijaya (Pusri) Sulfa Gani, Kamis (13/11) mengutarakan, penambahan itu berdasarkan usulan tambahan pupuk urea bersubsidi dari Gubernur Sumsel kepada Menteri Pertanian yang jumlahnya 35.000 ton.

Menurut Sulfa, tambahan pupuk urea tersebut diprioritaskan untuk daerah penghasil beras utama di Sumsel yaitu Kabupaten Banyuasin dan Ogan Komering Ulu Timur. Sedangkan sisanya akan didistribusikan untuk kabupaten/kota lain di Sumsel.

Sebelum mendapat tambahan 35.000 ton, pada tahun 2008 Sumsel mendapat alokasi pupuk urea bersubsidi sebanyak 165.483 ton kemudian direvisi menjadi 175.483 ton.

Stok pupuk urea di gudang PT Pusri di Sumsel saat ini 22.207 ton, sedangkan stok di pabrik berupa urea curah dan urea dalam kantong sebanyak 44.000 ton. Penyaluran pupuk urea bersubsidi di Sumsel per 1 Januari-11 November telah mencapai 165.000 ton.

source: kompas.com

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