Summary
Certification becomes a prerequisite for tradable products to get legality and access
to global market. Each tradable product can choose certificate according to its market
destination. However, the application of certification standards are very low in both
international (RSPO and ISCC) and domestic (ISPO) standards. This study was focused
on the ISPO certification. How large is the gap between current practices and ISPO
standard? What are factors that affect adoption of ISPO certification? Does ISPO deliver
more access to market for oil palm smallholders? Do smallholders have adequate capacity
to meet ISPO standard? These questions have been assessed and discussed in this paper
to find answer and alternative way out for smallholders to meet the ISPO standard. The
objective of this study is to assess capacity and willingness of oil palm independent
smallholders to meet the standard of ISPO certification. This study was conducted in
Pelalawan District, Riau Province using a survey method. The result shows that a number
of barriers are faced by smallholders to obtain ISPO certification while the opportunity
to get better access to local and global market is still uncertain. The adoption of ISPO
certificate was influenced by farmers' knowledge on agricultural practices, business
legality, household income, and land-size.