Precision Agriculture for Smallholder Oil Palm Plantations: Barriers, Enabling Conditions, and Policy Pathways for Inclusive Digital Transformation

This journal discusses the potential of precision agriculture to enhance productivity, input efficiency, and sustainability in smallholder oil palm plantations. Through a qualitative literature review of recent studies, this analysis assesses the barriers and prerequisites for implementing technologies such as remote sensing, drones, machine learning, digital farm recording, and precision fertilization. Findings indicate that adoption at the smallholder level is still hindered by high costs, limited farm data, fragmented land, low digital literacy, weak connectivity, limited access to financing, and weak extension services. The implication is that the digital transformation of smallholder oil palm needs to be carried out gradually through cooperatives, shared services, inclusive funding, fair data governance, and integration with certification and traceability so that the benefits of technology are not only enjoyed by large plantations.