Productivity And Income Peformance Comparison of Smallholder Oil Palm Plantation at Dry Land and Wet Land of South Sumatra Indonesia

Oil palm plantations has become a growing business in South Sumatra and other provinces in Indonesia, since it provide higher profit for the owners (producers) compared to that can be resulted from other agrcultural business operated on suboptimal lands (dry and wet lands). Many farmers has engaged in the business by operating smallholder oil palm plantations at both areas, but traditionally the business started at dry land area which were not productive for food crops like rice, corn and soybean. Around less than ten years ago, the farmers of wet land area began to involve in the buisness. This research tries to compare the productivity and income (profit) gained by the farmers at both areas using primary data collected from sample farmers. The results shows that there was no significant differences in productivity and income from the oil palm plantation between the two areas, although there were different variation in fertilizer uses and age level of oil plant trees. The wet land palm oil seems to be more economically prospective to operate in the future, but should be endorsed with the aplication of good agricultural practices.