The Stall Of The Agrarian Special Committee Is Considered To Disrupt The Certainty Of Oil Palm Farmers' Business

Former Expert Staff of the Minister of ATR/Head of BPN for Agrarian Law and Indigenous Society, Yagus Suyadi. (Photo: Special)

JAKARTA The deadlock in the discussion of the Agrarian Special Committee (Pansus) of the DPR RI is considered to have the potential to hamper the stability of national palm oil supply and production and supply chains.

The People's Palm Oil Farmers Forum and the IPB Palm Oil Study Center assessed that the stagnation extends the uncertainty of land law, which is the main foundation of the business activities of oil palm farmers and derivative industries.

It is feared that this uncertainty will have an impact on plantation productivity, access to financing, and the export target of crude palm oil (CPO) which is one of the largest foreign exchange contributors to the country.

According to the Palm Oil Farmers Forum, without concrete steps from the Agrarian Special Committee, thousands of farmers' families remain in vulnerable situations because there is no certainty about the status of the land occupied or cultivated.

This condition is believed to have contributed to the risk of rural economics and triggered a decline in investment in the upstream sector of perkelapasawan.

One of the cases that is considered to reflect the weakness of agrarian governance is the conflict in Tesso Nilo National Park (TNTN), Riau.

Regional boundary issues, overlapping licensing, and the absence of a settlement scheme that touches the root of the problem make farmers lose business certainty.

"The TNTN case is a clear example of how the uncertainty of agrarian policies has a direct impact on the economic sustainability of farmers," said Chairman of the Sawit Farmers Forum Abdul Aziz.

Deputy Secretary General of the Riau Forest and Land Governance Community Forum, Samuel Simanjuntak, added that many people have lived in areas that are now claimed to be conservation areas before the official determination is made.

This uncertainty causes people's economic activity to stop and triggers prolonged social losses.

On the other hand, former Expert Staff of the Minister of ATR/Head of BPN for Agrarian Law and Indigenous Society, Yagus Suyadi, assessed that the inconsistency of agrarian policies has put people's palm oil farmers in a contradictory situation.

The government encourages downstreaming and increasing CPO exports, but does not solve basic problems related to regional boundaries and abandoned HGU which make it difficult for farmers to access business legality.

Yagus emphasized the importance of synchronizing forest area data as well as a more humane approach to ensure that agrarian governance improvements are in line with the economic needs of farmers in the field.

Meanwhile, the representative of Samade Riau, Eko, assessed that the slow work of the Agrarian Special Committee had exacerbated business uncertainty.

"Pansus seems to have lost political courage. Without legal certainty, the economy of oil palm farmers is threatened," he said.

Forum Tani Sawit mendesak Pansus segera memanggil Kementerian ATR/BPN, KLHK, dan pemerintah daerah guna merumuskan penyelesaian struktural atas konflik agraria di kawasan sawit rakyat.

Penyelesaian agraria bukan hanya soal regulasi, tetapi menentukan keberlanjutan ekonomi jutaan keluarga petani.

Tanpa langkah korektif, konflik seperti TNTN dinilai akan terus menjadi beban ekonomi pedesaan dan menghambat produktivitas sektor sawit, yang hingga kini masih menjadi penopang penting perekonomian nasional.

The Palm Oil Farmers Forum urges the Special Committee to immediately summon the Ministry of ATR/BPN, KLHK, and local governments to formulate a structural settlement of agrarian conflicts in the people's palm oil area.

Agrarian settlement is not only a matter of regulation, but determines the economic sustainability of millions of farmers' families.

Without corrective steps, conflicts such as TNTN are considered to continue to be a burden on rural economies and hinder the productivity of the palm oil sector, which is still an important support for the national economy.