Smallholder palm oil and sustainable development goals (SDGs) achievement: An empirical analysis

Abstract

This paper is aimed at examining and analyzing the contribution of palm oil smallholders to the achievement of the SDGs. Another objective is to determine the highest SDGs that contribute to the achievement of SDGs by examining 13 SDGs out of 17 SDGs analyzed using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to estimate composite SDGs index. The survey was conducted in 7 provinces in Indonesia which are oil palm centers in Indonesia. Data was obtained from interviews with 3060 smallholder oil palm farmers divided into 3 strata based on the area of oil palm land owned. The results showed that the SDG composite index of smallholders reached 77.57 %, which informed that smallholder oil palm had reached 77.57 % of the 2030 SDGS target. This achievement is greater than the national achievement which reached 70.16 %. Of the 13 SDGs analyzed, SDG17 achieved the weakest followed by SDG5. While the highest achievement was obtained by SDG1 which was followed by SDG6 and SDG8. In the future, more comprehensive cross-sectoral research related to the achievement of SDGs, especially related to the impact of government policy interventions on the achievement of SDGs.