GRASS is growing thick and dense at Syafruddin's oil palm plantation. For the past three weeks the 53-year-old man has let weeds cover 6 hectares of his land. He is not alone. At his village, Air Hitam, Kecamatan Gebang, Langkat, North Sumatra, nearly all oil palm farmers are adopting the same attitude.

Money is the root of the problem. Syafruddin can no longer afford to pay weed cutters because the palm oil price continues to decline these past tw