By Gayatri Suroyo and Bernadette Christina

SAMPIT, Indonesia (Reuters) -Indonesian soldiers in fatigues marched onto a private palm oil plantation on Borneo island in late June and posted a signboard declaring the estate under government control, its managers said.

The scene at the Melati Hanjalipan plantation exemplifies a sweeping military-backed takeover that has sent a chill through the world’s biggest palm oil producer and its 16-million-strong workforce.

Around 3.7 million hectares (9.1 million acres) of plantations have been seized, with nearly half transferred to nascent state firm Agrinas Palma Nusantara, catapulting it into the world’s largest palm oil company by land size.

The crackdown ordered by President Prabowo Subianto is the biggest structural change in Indonesia’s pal

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