Responsible Production

One key way to mitigate climate change is reducing GHG emissions. We recognise that the largest source of emissions in our operations is from cultivation at our plantations. GAR is committed to reducing this through methane gas capture and composting, among other efforts.

Water is a vital resource for our operations and the communities where we operate. We recognise that water availability is an increasingly important issue given climate change and we are looking at ways to minimise our water footprint.

GAR’s plantations are rain-fed, not irrigated, and we strive to meet all our water needs through surface water that is processed to meet the quality standards required for production. We continue to improve our water efficiency by recycling and reusing where we can.

We also follow land management practices to reduce the risk of surface and ground water pollution. These include not applying herbicides or chemicals near riparian areas; restricting the application of treated liquid waste (POME) which is used as fertiliser to 50 metres from riparian areas; and planting vetiver grass to minimise soil erosion at riparian areas.

The increasing occurrence of extreme weather phenomena like El Niño can lead to severe drought. We are exploring ways to optimise water use in our plantations through the use of advanced technology including AI.

More information on our water footprint can be found in our Sustainability Report.

Yield improvement is a key strategy to reduce our carbon footprint. Being able to obtain higher yields from existing agricultural land through better seed stock means higher revenue while potentially reducing the need for more agricultural land. GAR harnesses biotechnology to improve our planting material and seed stock, which leads to higher oil palm productivity rates within our plantations. GAR funds this research, being carried out at our two state-of-the-art research centres.

The SMART Research Institute (SMARTRI) in Libo, Riau is our flagship research facility with a team of 80 researchers and scientists focusing on improving practices in agronomy, breeding, and crop protection, all of which contribute to sustainable palm oil production. SMARTRI is ISO 9001:2008 certified for its Quality Management System and accredited with ISO 17025 for its analytical laboratory.

Our researchers in SMARTRI work on a range of projects, most notably with the University of Cambridge in a long-term collaboration researching ecosystems in oil palm plantations.

The SMART Biotechnology Centre in Sentul, Bogor, serves as an innovation hub housing interdisciplinary fields including Molecular Engineering; Molecular Breeding, Bioinformatics; Biochemistry; Microbiome Technology; Proteomics, and Tissue Culture. It is ISO 9001:2015 certified for Quality Management Systems.

Our scientists in the Plant Production and Biotechnology Division conduct research on high yield planting material that includes the production of oil palm clones through micro propagation and tissue culture.

Following years of R&D in our two facilities, GAR launched super high-yielding seeds Eka 1 and Eka 2 in 2017. This revolutionary planting material is capable of producing over 10 tonnes of CPO/hectare/year, versus the national average of 3.6 tonnes/hectare/year in Indonesia. The new planting materials were developed through conventional selection and tissue culture from elite parent palms.

Eka 1 and Eka 2 are registered under Indonesia’s Catalogue of Seeds and will help GAR combat deforestation as palm oil yields will be increased to the highest levels in the industry, without increasing size of land under cultivation.

SMARTRI and SMART Biotechnology Centre are now working on creating sufficient clonal seed stock to be planted in the estates in the next few years.