KUALA LUMPUR: Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) has formed a pact with Malaysia Institute for Supply Chain Innovation (MISI), International Plant Nutrition Institute (IPNI) and Yara International to help improve the livelihood of smallholders within the group’s palm supply chain in Malaysia.
After a successful pilot ran between 2015 and 2018, P&G said it was expanding the programme that partners with independent palm oil smallholders to increase their overall fruit yields through the training and implementation of best-in-class, and more sustainable agricultural practices.
P&G said the pilot was focused on assessing the baseline capability of around 2,000 smallholder farmers in Johor.
Given its success, the programme is expanding to create 250 learning farms which will be embedded in a P&G-led innovation system.
“These farms will serve as community resource centres to drive scale and diffusion of good agricultural practices for up to 10,000 smallholders within the next five years.
“The goal is to improve yields by 30 to 50 per cent, improve the livelihood of the smallholder farmers and ensure sustainable practices in the P&G palm oil supply chain,” it said in a statement today.
P&G said it was committed to the responsible sourcing of palm and had declared livelihood improvement for the palm oil smallholders as one of its Ambition 2030 environmental sustainability goals.
Today, smallholders provide about 40 per cent of the world’s palm oil supply, however many of them have limited knowledge or access to agricultural resources to help maximise their crop.
“We believe we can be a force for good and a force for growth. This programme illustrates our commitment to driving long-term sustainability efforts.
“We are proud of the work we are doing in Malaysia because it is the right thing to do for the local community and the global consumers we serve who want more sustainable products,” said P&G Chemicals vice president Jack Ryan.
P&G believes the effort helped move the smallholders in the right direction and set them up for long-term success.
“Sustainability of the system is underpinned by a common and shared vested interest of smallholders, oil palm processors and fertiliser supply chains.
“The goal is to increase productivity of farms and to meet the continued demand for sustainable palm oil and palm kernel oil,” it said.