GAP certification: a step towards smallholders sustainable palm oil production

Malaysia is committed to produce palm oil in a sustainable manner. In 2010, there were 4.85 million ha of oil palm area in Malaysia and 651,385.00 ha or 13 percent were owned by 170,000 independent smallholders. Since 2004, the Malaysian oil palm growers have subscribed to Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certification, and as of June 2011, there were 0.5 million ha of estate in Malaysia having certified to have produced palm oil in a sustainable manner. There was none from the independent smallholders certified under RSPO. Nevertheless, to pursue the sustainable palm oil in the smallholding sector, MPOB had taken the initiative to start from the basic by introducing the Good Agriculture Practice (GAP) certification programme among the smallholders. Adopting GAP is the basis to increase productivity, and in addition it is part of the RSPO and Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) certification requirement. Under the GAP certification programme, a smallholder needs to adopt a minimum of 23 practices out of 27 practices required and the remaining four practices are strongly encouraged. To start with, MPOB had surveyed 500 smallholders' holdings to gauge the adoption of GAP. The results showed that there were 34.2% smallholdings having fully complied, 54% smallholdings partially complied and 11.8% smallholdings were unable to get GAP certificate as the holdings had not adopted the good agricultural practices during the establishment phase They include practices such as not constructing terraces on hill slope or incorrect planting system Based on the initial findings, MPOB had identified GAP practices that had not been adopted by the partially complied group, and various extension activities had since been conducted to rectify the situation. Therefore, the implementation of GAP certification is the right step to move smallholders towards' sustainable palm oil production. Other sustainability criteria on social and environmental factors would be added later as the programme progresses.