Maisalina Maisalina
IPMI International Business School
Amelia Naim Indrajaya
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Most of the people in Seblat are farmers. They do their land without any knowledge of sustainability. When PT Agricinal was established in December 1982, the people and community were also influenced by the new innovation. Agricinal with the founders who have a vision, “To make Seblat and the people grow with the company in a good way,” influenced the community with the thought and value to grow together with the company. The founder created some innovations regarding the coconut business plan and later become the national program of government regulation regarding the coconut oil plant businesses. Some of the innovations are:
1. Helping small farmers to do plantations in their own land (shareholders plantation/”Kebun Plasma”). The people in Seblat mostly are farmers. PT Agricinal gathered the community and trained them to do their land in a right way, giving them the authorized capital containing cattle, carts, and seed. This capital then can be returned by exchanging their harvest (PT Agricinal will pay a fair price for the harvest) and periodic payments (decrease interest system) to make sure the farmers have enough capital to plant their land. PT Agricinal also gives the farmers an education, training, and workshops about how to plant palm oil, how to harvest, the right method, and the best way to have a primer seed. This “Kebun Plasma” method later became one of the Indonesian Government Regulations to all the oil palm companies to make sure of the engagement between the business owner and management with the society and the environment.
2. Founder of SISKA (Sistem Integrasi Sapi-Kelapa Sawit Ala Agricinal) – System of Integration Cattle in the Oil Palm Plantation in 1997. This system helped harvesters in lifting their Fresh Fruit Bunch from the harvesting area to the Temporary Shelter and then the Fresh Fruit Bunch is taken by car to the Process Area. The environment of Seblat has corrugated areas that make the farmers' work difficult and waste time delivering their harvest. Using the cattle integration system makes the farmers increase their performance and productivity more than 150%. This is also increasing their earnings double or triple times because they can work for a bigger area plant. The cattle itself can produce animal waste/feces that can be processed to be a natural fertilizer to the land itself. Animal waste and non-waste oil feed can improve the physical, chemical, and biological soil, which in turn can improve soil fertility. This potential idea can also reduce the applied chemical fertilizer or cost production of oil palm. The cattle also helps the farmers to clean up the weeds so the farmers don’t need to clean the weeds by themselves but the cattle will eat them so it won’t ruin the palm oil. Side products from oil palm plantation such as fronds, leaves, grass, solid, palm kernel cake, can be used as cattle feed. The farmers can save their energy and time due to this process.
For the company itself, this system can reduce their human resources, having an extra benefit from the sales of animal feed, the guarantee of natural fertilizer and of course the farmers will be more loyal to PT Agricinal.
In 2007, PT Agricinal also established the biogas fuel of the animal waste in their plants. Realizing that LPG and kerosene are the most widely used for the daily cooking activity, the animal waste is not only used as the natural fertilizer, but also created as biogas to fulfill the household needs. Compared to the LPG consumption that uses 1 tube in around 1 month, the biogas can use in 1-2 days. Every 4 houses have 1 biogas tank to supply the energy needs for cooking activity.
The other use of palm oil which was developed by PT Agricinal was replacing the needs of diesel oil of fossil energy by using biodiesel from crude palm oil. This also can make the sustainability of energy that people need.
3. Opening school for employees' families and supporting undergraduate scholarships for employees' families. To make sure that the employees' families and the people in the community have a good education, PT Agricinal also built a school called Tenera. Starting from kindergarten to high school. This private school was built in the plantation area, so the family members of the employees can go to the school without any worries, since the nearest school is very far from Seblat. This school is run by the Agricinal Foundation and there’s no tuition fee for the employees' family members who go to the school. For the public, they offer a cheap tuition for a good education in Seblat. There’s a lot of education programs that they have been made to make sure that the children of Seblat have the minimal education as proposed by the government program.
4. Developing the community environment and animal conservation. PT Agricinal also contributes in the developing community environment in Seblat. By their CSR Program, they built the house of worship around the community, the village meeting hall, the school room activity, and also they support the animal conservation in Seblat. By doing this development, together with the people of Seblat, they grow together and give their best to the community and also the country. Together with the government, PT Agricinal is supporting the elephant conservation near their company.
- The son of the founder is a very humble person and the values of the family are very strong.
After hearing his story regarding their family business, it makes me wonder how could this very successful and big- hearted person be so humble the way I see him during my interview. They do have the family values that they have from their father/founder to grow together with Seblat people in a good way and they can be like this because of the practice of walk the talk in their daily life.
- Professional and profitable business.
They do business in professional way and they really do it. There’s no cost allocated from their cash flow to manipulate the government regarding the regulation of coconut oil business. By their company brand, they do the tender, do the cooperation clearly and professionally. Their system and procedure are delivered to the community in a good way to make sure the farmers around them have the benefit from the Agricinal existence and also both farmers and company can achieve sustainable profit.
- Life is about flourishing others.
Being the second generation of the founder, and graduated from a famous university, Bandung Institute of Technology, Immanuel gives his life and time to continue the family business, with the vision and values of the company. He has to be far away from his family in Jakarta to make sure that the company can be sustainable and beneficial for the people of Seblet.
PT Agricinal is doing a great CSR program and also set up the foundation to arrange for the school, the charity, and the other operational systems, in addition to their core business to make sure that their vision, mission, and values were delivered. They make sure that the Kebun Plasma and SISKA model were well implemented by making the Standard Operation Procedure of the program. By this program, they make sure that the farmers around the company can have a better life and the cattle also have a long-lasting live. The land will be fertile by the natural fertilizer and the biogas can reduce the cost of the energy consumption of the whole process. The integration of cattle and palm oil program also became the national government regulation and there’s a lot of companies who are benchmarking and applying the same program to make a more sustainable business for Indonesia. The school is dedicated to a better education, and they give the community an opportunity to do their daily activity and prayer in a proper building. They go beyond profit, to people and planet.
Benefit for Community:
Benefit for Local Government:
Benefit for Environment :
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Immanuel Palti Manurung, Operation Director
PT Agricinal was established at 1982, when N.M Manurung, started his journey to develop Seblat, the small village near Bengkulu Province, about 3.5 hours way, with a big potential in planting palm oil. Agricinal has 11,000 ha concession land with 1,200 employees (harvester, mills operator, staff). Their company’s activities are: plantations, nursery, CPO mills, palm oil – cattle integration system, share holder plantations, special CPO's port and trading . Agricinal has 2 oil plant mills that produce CPO that produce 91,000 tons CPO per annum. The population in Seblat was about 1.8 Million and most of them are farmers.