The oil palm industry in Indonesia faces several
challenges in its bid to adopt more sustainable practices.
These challenges include finding ways to increase smallholder
palm oil production and to promote benefit sharing
with local communities. However, factors that influence oil
palm yield and income among oil palm smallholdings are
poorly known. We surveyed 379 households in 15 villages
in Sumatra, Indonesia, to identify factors controlling smallholder
yield and income. We found that decreasing monthly
harvesting rotation of oil palm smallholdings decreases oil
palm yield, whereby once-a-month harvesting resulted in
the lowest annual fresh fruit bunch yields (14.82 t/ha). We
also found that independent smallholder households receive
lower gross monthly incomes compared to scheme and
managed smallholder households, whereby independent
smallholders received the lowest gross monthly income
from oil palm cultivation (2.17 million Indonesian rupiah).
Our results provide quantitative evidence that harvesting
rotation and type of smallholder management are important
constraints on oil palm yields and incomes of smallholders.