Vol. 3 No. 2 (2026): Global More-than-Human Histories of Palms
Enclosure, Extraction and Unequal Care

Women Workers and Bodily Dispossessions in Indonesia’s Oil Palm Plantations

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  • Perdana P. Roswaldy
Perdana P. Roswaldy
Monash University
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3197/whppp.63876246815934

Published 2026-09-16

Keywords

  • agrochemicals,
  • workers,
  • palm oil,
  • bodies

How to Cite

Roswaldy, Perdana P. 2026. “Women Workers and Bodily Dispossessions in Indonesia’s Oil Palm Plantations”. Plant Perspectives 3 (2):346-62. https://doi.org/10.3197/whppp.63876246815934.

Copyright (c) 2026 Perdana P. Roswaldy

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

While many large-scale agricultural companies have adopted technocratic instruments as a part of their commitments to good agricultural practices (GAP) and sustainability, overuse of agrochemicals (pesticides and inorganic fertilisers) remains a largely unresolved issue. Detrimental to both agricultural workers and the ecosystem, concerns about toxic agrochemicals have increased among activists and scholars. Yet, the damage has been done and pesticide effects on the ecosystem and people are almost irreversible as extractive agricultural systems such as monoculture expand. Drawing from ethnography and focus group discussions among Indonesian oil palm plantation workers, I show how the irrefutable use of pesticides in the palm oil complex highlights the gendered dimension of the reproduction of the plantation economy and ecosystem. I conclude that the imperative use of agrochemicals functions as a patriarchal device that deepens workers’ exploitation, land dispossession and the capitalist production of nature in the plantation economy.

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