BPDPKS Invites Students To Get To Know The National Palm Industry Closer

Illustration. (Photo: Pixabay)

JAKARTA - The incessant and massive waves of negative news related to palm oil by various parties are a challenge for the national palm oil industry going forward.

With the increasingly open flow of information that exists today, people need to sort and select the news they get from the media, especially for students, who are in fact the future successors of this nation.

Therefore, the form of promotion and education about the various positive impacts of palm oil and its benefits for this nation in the future needs to be done more intensively, especially by targeting the younger generation segment so that there is no misperception about the development of the palm oil industry in Indonesia as a whole.

The Oil Palm Plantation Fund Management Agency (BPDPKS) as a Public Service Agency (BLU) government working unit under the Directorate General of Treasury, Ministry of Finance, has a firm one in the form of channeling funds for oil palm plantation research and development programs from upstream to downstream aspects.

The President Director of BPDPKS, Edi Abdurrahman, said that this was intended as an effort to develop, strengthen and increase the empowerment of the national oil palm plantation and industry, especially among the younger generation.

"Therefore, today, Tuesday 16 June, BPDPKS deliberately invited students from all over Indonesia to be able to take part in a free online seminar which will present a positive campaign on oil palm," said Edi in a statement received by VOI, Tuesday 16 June.

Not only that, on the same occasion the mechanism for submitting proposals for the 2020 Student Palm Oil Research Competition will be selected. In this competition, 30 of the best proposals will be selected which will get research funds of a maximum of IDR 20 million each.

Through his research, the 30 selected participants will fight for a total prize of Rp110 million for the three winners. The details are Rp. 50 million for the first winner, Rp. 35 million for the second winner and Rp. 25 million for the third winner.

Previously, this competition had been successfully held in 2016 and 2018 with the interval of implementation being set once every two years. In the last event, students from Sebelas Maret University managed to emerge as First Place.

Then then students from Lambung Mangkurat University and Padjadjaran University respectively won Second Place and Third Place. Through this kind of activity, BPDPKS hopes that the national palm oil industry can be closer and well recognized by Indonesia's young generation.

"Proximity and good understanding are important as basic capital for the development of the national palm oil industry in the future," said Edi.