Soil and water conservation practices among the independent's oil palm smallholders at the Saratok's cooperative
Knowledge on implementation of soil and water conservation practices (SWCP) are
importance to be adopted by oil palm growers in order to maintain the quality of natural
resources and also committed with the environmental conservation. As one ofthe criteria in
the Malaysian Palm Oil Board Good Agricultural Practices (MPOB-GAP), it must be
adopted in order to qualify the oil palm growers, especially smallholders to be certified with
the quality certifications as well as to increase FFB yields and incomes. The Malaysian
government through relevant agency has made an effort to group the independent oil palm
smallholders through cooperative under the Sustainabletalm Oil Clusters (SPOC) to
facilitate the extension activities and certification programs. This study was carried out in
Saratok District under Betong Division involving the mem ers of Saratok's Sustainable Oil
Palm Growers Cooperative (KPSMDS). The objective of this study is to evaluate the
knowledge and current adoption of SWCP in the smallholder farms. In this study,
conservation practices implemented by oil palm smallholders were evaluated based on the
checklist in the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) principle number four, criteria
4.2, 4.3 and 4.4. Research methods that have been used in this study are in-situ observation
and face to face interview session with KP DSMS participants. The results of the study
indicated that the implementations of soil and water conservation practices were still low
implemented by the oil palm smallholders. The knowledge regarding the good agricultural
practices is the main factor that influences the status of implementation of both soil and
water conservation practices. Recommendations based on the research affirm that it is
necessary to take into account the education program for the cooperative's members in order
10 ensure that their awareness of the practices is high and adoption of sWCP were
implemented for the independent's smallholders benefit.