Ao:p>All three tickets contesting the 2024 presidential election have pledged to support the palm oil industry by providing legal certainty and a dedicated agency to untangle regulatory knots.

Speaking during a discussion hosted by Kompas at Jakarta’s Santika Hotel on Wednesday, the campaign teams of the Prabowo Subianto-Gibran Rakabuming Raka ticket, the Anies Baswedan-Muhaimin Iskandar ticket and the Ganjar Pranowo-Mahfud MD ticket all agreed on a need to secure land rights for oil palm farmers and to streamline rules.

“We need to untangle overlapping regulations,” said Panji Irawan, a member of the expert council of the Prabowo-Gibran campaign. “We are proposing a state palm oil agency with authority across ministries,” he added at the event titled Get-together with National Palm Oil Stakeholders.

This agency, Panji explained, would resemble an authority with a seat at the policymaking table. The team also suggested that palm oil farmers participate in the management of the existing Palm Oil Plantation Fund Management Agency (BPDPKS).

“We’ll ensure regulations favor farmers and guarantee their participation in all palm oil policymaking,” emphasized Panji. “Pak Prabowo and Pak Gibran will work to recognize the legality of plantations in forest areas and certify farmers' plantations using palm oil funds.”

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Ganjar’s camp offered a different strategy by proposing a reform of the palm oil fund agency. Danang Dirindrawardana, spokesman for the Ganjar-Mahfud campaign, argued that the agency “should not only be a cash cow but a one-stop shop for all things palm oil,” encompassing legal, policy and regulatory issues.

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