Strengthening oil palm smallholder farmers’ resilience to future industrial challenges

Oil palm cultivation has improved living standards and alleviated the poverty of many smallholder farmers. However, challenges such as climate change, aging palms and negative sentiments in the major markets, threaten the wellbeing of and raise the question on smallholder farmers’ resilience, which...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2024-05, Vol.14 (1), p.12105-12105, Article 12105
Main Authors: Hendrawan, Dienda, Chrisendo, Daniel, Musshoff, Oliver
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
704/844/2787
704/844/685
704/844/841
Adaptation
Capital assets
Climate change
Cocoa
Farmers
Heterogeneity
Humanities and Social Sciences
Livelihood
multidisciplinary
Oil palm
Palm oil
Petroleum industry
Plantations
Poverty
Resilience
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Small farms
Smallholder farmers
Standard of living
Sustainable communities
Sustainable development
Vegetable oils
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Summary:Oil palm cultivation has improved living standards and alleviated the poverty of many smallholder farmers. However, challenges such as climate change, aging palms and negative sentiments in the major markets, threaten the wellbeing of and raise the question on smallholder farmers’ resilience, which remains poorly understood. Using primary data from Indonesia, the largest palm oil producer in the world, we measure and evaluate the resilience of oil palm smallholder farmers using the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach. Our results revealed five classes of smallholders with different levels of resilience: vulnerable, economically and socially constrained, low-skilled, semi-secure and adaptive smallholders. The farmers in the least resilient group are majorly older local farmers, who established oil palm plantations independently. Meanwhile, the most resilient group is dominated by smallholders who participated in the migration program, and in the past, received support from the government to start oil palm plantations. Our study highlights the heterogeneity of smallholders’ livelihood resilience and the need for inclusive and tailored interventions for the various classes of smallholder farmers to establish sustainable communities.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-024-62426-z