Written by Eliza Nojin, MSPO

Women have played a crucial role in the palm oil industry, contributing significantly to its operations across various levels. In oil palm plantations, women are involved in numerous roles, such as fieldwork, supervising and managing workers, maintenance tasks, sustainability efforts, quality control, and administrative functions.

However, the working culture for women smallholders differs. Their responsibilities on the farm are diverse, often requiring them to perform multiple tasks in a single day. These women frequently accompany their husbands or other family members to the farm early in the morning, returning home in the afternoon, with flexible working hours. It's not uncommon to see women smallholders driving four-wheel pickups to deliver fresh fruit bunches (FFB) to collection centers and mills.

Traditionally, men have dominated the oil palm industry. This dominance is partly due to land ownership, as small-scale oil palm farms are predominantly owned by men who are typically the family heads and primary breadwinners. Additionally, managing oil palm farms often demands a strong physical presence, especially for tasks like harvesting, pruning, and loading FFB, which involve significant manual labor. Furthermore, some married women choose to stay home to care for infants, returning to assist their husbands on the farm as their children grow older.

Women smallholders play a vital role in the operations of oil palm farms, handling a wide range of tasks including weeding, spraying herbicides and pesticides, manuring, collecting loose fruit, transporting fresh fruit bunches (FFB) to collection centers, maintaining records, and updating documentation for Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) certification.

In Sarawak, women from longhouses often collaborate, working together on different farms to accelerate the workload. For instance, they might work on Farm A on Monday and Farm B on Tuesday, completing agreed-upon tasks. This non-monetary cooperation is a common practice that increases workforce efficiency, enhances productivity, and reduces costs by avoiding the need to hire outside labor.

However, women smallholders face significant challenges, particularly when it comes to harvesting and pruning tall, mature oil palm trees and transporting FFB from the field to the platform. These tasks, such as harvesting heavy oil palm bunches and pruning tall palms, are physically demanding and often better suited to men. Women may benefit from using mechanical harvesters and pruners to ease the physical strain.

Additionally, safety is a concern, as they are at risk of animal-related injuries, chemical exposure during spraying, and various ergonomic injuries, including neck, shoulder, hand, wrist, and lower back pain. To mitigate these hazards, it is advisable to maintain the farm well to avoid overgrowth that could hide dangerous animals like snakes. When spraying, using appropriate safety equipment is essential. To prevent ergonomic injuries, workers should avoid rushing, incorporate stretching, and change positions regularly while working.

To better support women smallholders, providing more training in oil palm management and good agricultural practices would be beneficial, along with offering words of encouragement to keep them motivated in the field. Kudos to all the women working in the oil palm sector—they are a true inspiration, encouraging other women to get involved in an industry traditionally dominated by men.