September 23, 2026 | 04:23 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Muhammad Basir, 50, has held on to his coconut plantation in Hamlet II, Muara Sungsang village, Banyuasin Regency, South Sumatra. For nearly 30 years, he has tended the two-hectare plot, which lies directly beside a vast stretch of oil palm plantations. The land was inherited from his parents, who came to the area as transmigrants from Sulawesi in 1994.
"At first, the land was cleared for rice. Then people started switching to coconuts because of their great potential in coastal areas. So I'm the second generation to own this coconut plantation," Basir told Tempo when he was interviewed on Monday, July 20, 2026.
Muara Sungsang sits at the mouth of the Banyuasin River, about 70 kilometers north of Palembang. The village is known as South Sumatra's largest coconut production center. Basir's plantation is not far from Tanjung Api-api Port, which is integrated with the Tanjung Api-api Special Economic Zone.
Alongside coconut trees, oil palms have also begun to dominate the area. All of them are smallholder plantations, including some owned by coconut farmers.
Basir has also bought land around Muara Sungsang to plant oil palms. Taken together, his oil palm plantations are more than seven times the size of his coconut plantation.
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