CSS – Highlights
2024 CSS Impact Report
We are thrilled to announce the release of the 2024 Center for Sustainable Small-owners (CSS) Impact Report, showcasing the tremendous progress of the P&G Smallholders Program—a joint effort by the Asia School of Business (ASB), P&G, and Temasek Foundation. This initiative while empowering independent smallholder farmers in Johor, Malaysia, promotes sustainable agricultural practices that improve yield and certified sustainable palm oil production.
- Certification Success: Over 400 farmers have achieved RSPO Independent Smallholder Certification, with another 400 expected by 2025.
- Improved Livelihoods: 306 certified farmers received USD 42,630 in premiums from 2021-2023.
- Environmental Impact: Adoption of best agricultural practices has improved yield and waste and chemical management.
- Community Empowerment: Establishment of PERTANIAGA, a smallholder-owned association with over 700 members.
- Training & Awareness: 1,972 farmers trained on Good Agricultural Practices since July 2022.
RSPO Independent Smallholder Standard (RISS) Training Sessions for Group 5 Under PERTANIAGA
The CSS team from ASB and the Independent Smallholders under their Association PERTANIAGA, jointly organized a training in Johor Bahru over the weekend on the RSPO Independent Smallholder Standard (RISS).
72 Independent Smallholders (ISHs) attended the session. Trainers from ASB CSS, UITM Jasin @ Melaka and PERTANIAGA conducted the sessions including topics on Benefits Of Being In A Sustainability Group, Harvesting, Fertiliser Selection & Application and Financial Literacy.
Post-training, the ISH are required to implement Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) and prepare for their own external certification audit scheduled at the end of Q1 2025 after which they will be entitled to receive 100% premium on their produce.
While CSS has trained more than 600 farmers, these elderly 1st generation farmers had some difficult questions up their sleeve – how to keep the second and third generation still on the farm.
CSS Strategic Working Wessions P&G for ESG and Sustainability 2024
2 April – 3 April: CSS had strategic working sessions with Eugene Han, Senior Director at P&G for ESG and Sustainability and Ng Jin Yong, Palm ESG Sustainability Manager over the last two days at ASB.
Eugene expressed P&G’s appreciation with the current progress of the program with a mandate from P&G to expand the program to other states of Malaysia going forward. Notably, Eugene shared that P&G Senior Vice President Eric Roberts in his P&G townhall announced that “The CSS driven Smallholder Program is P&G’s best CSR/ESG program globally.”
CSS Waste Management Program Studies
The Center for Sustainable Small-owners (CSS), through the Certification and Compliance initiative team in collaboration with UITM Jasin, Melaka, had conducted a preliminary study on the waste management program, involving two communities from two collection centers under the P&G Smallholder Program, which were Perniagaan Bingan Jaya and Sudiana Enterprise.
This program aims to identify and quantify the most impactful types of waste and volumes produced by both communities and to gauge understanding about waste management practices among the smallholders of the communities.
The session is part of the environmental aspect of the CSS’s curriculum under the Waste Management topic, to adhere to the principles and criteria of the RSPO ISH Standard certification requirement.
The session that was jointly managed by the CSS and UITM teams started at 08.30 am and ended at 12.00 pm, attended by 38 participants (27 males and 11 females), both from Sudiana Enterprise and Perniagaan Bingan Jaya.
Stay tuned for the upcoming update on the waste management program.
P&G Senior Leadership visits Center for Sustainable Small-owners (CSS) at Batu Pahat, Johor, Malaysia
Center for Sustainable Small-owners (CSS), hosted a Senior P&G Leadership team visiting from P&G Headquarters in Cincinnati, USA. The team included Jim Hodges (Vice President, P&G Cincinnati), Azean Mohammad (Senior Director – Sales, Market Strategy & Planning, P&G Chemicals), Ayers Hong (Senior Manager, Palm Sustainability & Corporate Governance) and Ng Jin Yong (Palm ESG Sustainability Manager).
The team visited two smallholder farms and an oil-palm collection centre, getting a chance to observe first-hand how farmers were putting into practise what they learnt from the program. Re-enforcing ASB’s pedagogy of learning by doing, there was also a demonstration on oil palm harvesting and peat soil sampling, that Jim and Azean enthusiastically tried their hands at. In addition, the P&G leadership had an engaging dialogue session with the farmers, gaining insights into their experience on the program and how it has had such a positive impact on the farmer community.
“It’s my hope this program expands. The future is bright for oil palm to be sustainable and to increase the livelihood of the locals. To all the members of the program, thank you for your commitment, and everything you do, every day, to make this program a success, to make it grow and to make it valuable for the next generation,” said Jim Hodges before ending the memorable trip
Johor Plantations Agrotech Center (JPAC) Visit
Twenty four members of the CSS team participated in a visit to the Johor Plantations Agrotech Center (JPAC) to attend the Agronomy Research Trainer Training Program. The primary objective of this training was to gain insights into the current oil palm industry standards.
The day commenced with an on-site exploration of the replanting area, focusing on land preparation techniques such as pulverization and harrowing to manage rhinoceros beetle and Ganoderma.
Subsequently, the team toured the Agrotech Center, delving into topics like Agronomy, GIS, and drone technology. The itinerary continued with a visit to the Agronomy laboratory for sample testing, concluding with an exploration of oil palm plant breeding and tissue culture. We’re happy to share that the sessions saw active participation and questioning from the participants.
The CSS Project Site was visited by FGV Sustainability Unit, led by Nurul Hasanah Ahamed, FGV Head for Group Sustainability Division
“I witnessed the program’s success firsthand. We were aware of it since small holders had shared their experience with us a few years back.Thank you so much for the trip and we hope to benefit from your excellent work.” Nurul concluded at the visit.
FGV owns 67 mills across Malaysia, processing over 14 million MT of Fresh Fruit Bunches (FFB) annually, where two-thirds of the FFB are sourced from FELDA settlers and independent smallholders. CSS is looking for ways to help the independent smallholders supplying to FGV Mills. P&G ESG Sustainability Directors, Francis Weiderkehr based at Geneva and Girish Deshpande from P&G UK, Senior Director Eugene Han and Dr Kuan-Chun Lee, Principal Scientist from P&G Singapore also joined the site visit. They attended the training session conducted by CSS at the invitation of YB Puan Nur Rashidah Haji Ramli, Ahli Dewan Undangan Negeri Kawasan Parit Raja, Batu Pahat, Johor.
The P&G Center for Sustainable Small-owners (CSS) team met the Johor State Executive Council (EXCO) for the Agriculture, Agro-based Industry, and Rural Development
The EXCO office shared with us that they had collected feedback on CSS’s ongoing work and were pleased that it was positive and inspiring.
The meeting concluded that with the support of the State EXCO and existing CSS partners like CSS Smallholder Association PERTANIAGA, UTHM, and other relevant agencies from the state, CSS should expand its effort and outreach to other districts in Johor, and two new districts were suggested.
The CSS delegation was led by Professor Asad Ata, with CSS managers leading various CSS initiatives. Dr Siti Najaa, from ASB’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center (IEC), participated in this meeting. She presented the scope of IEC and shared the potential for a collaborative digitalization of the plantation project with CSS. This initiative would involve leveraging technologies like IoT and precision agriculture through an Innovation Challenge, engaging ASB students, alumni, and beyond.