Incentives for Palm Oil Smallholders in Mandatory Certification in Indonesia

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments

SUMMARY

The paper addresses the research area related to the agriculture of the MDPI Land journal. I believe that the target journal is an appropriate forum for this article. This article tries to provide scientific information in support of the acceleration of ISPO implementation through the elaboration on the role of incentives and their options in more detail. It addresses the following research questions: (1) in what ways can incentives facilitate the acceleration of ISPO certification, and (2) what alternative financing sources are available to support ISPO certification acceleration. The analysis for addressing the research questions was be developed from a literature study and in-depth interviews.

BROAD COMMENT

This study is of a great importance for Palm Oil production in Indonesia. The Introduction section is written with recent references. The methods were well described and in detail allowing a good understanding of the results of the study. They discussed well the results of the study. However, I have some concerns about the different parts of the manuscript. I suggest a minor revision to address a few issues. If the authors address carefully the comments, I’ll recommend publication of the manuscript in the journal.

SPECIFIC COMMENTS

• Lines 19-33: Please, do include more implications of the results of the study in the abstract as well as into the conclusion sections of the paper.
• Lines 198-224: On Figure 1 there is no linkage between Local government and the rest. Please, do correct this.
• Lines 167-197: How did you analyse the data that were from the interviews you conducted? Which software was used for that or how was it done the analysis?
• There is no results section in the manuscript, please do include that.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Please see attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear Authors,

Congratulations for the hard work and achievement. This manuscript has provided a good attempt in identifying challenges and alternative solutions in smallholders’sustainable agricultural certification, specifically in oil palm plantations in Indonesia.

Specific comments:

1. General comment: Oil palm should be an industrial plantation, the problem in Indonesia is that Indonesian government allows too much opportunity for individuals to grow oil palm without proper assistance and linkages with companies.
2. Line 24 abstract: independent smallholders do not experience market isolation. What they care is that they receive an increasing price in oil palm. In this case, the problem is with the mills who always buy fruits from independent smallholders without quality consideration (such as yield extraction rate). So, this paper should also discuss certification in mills level as well.
3. Line 39: googling results, is it established in 2009, enforced in 2011? Please check again.
4. Line 41: Does the country-specific sustainable palm oil certification only exist in Indonesia? What about in other major palm oil producing countries like Malaysia?
5. Line 50: Any data in number of ha for 63 ISPO certificates?
6. Line 62; why the figure is decreasing to 453 million ha while the number of certificate increased? Also, the figure 12.04 million tons of CPO, is it in a year as well?
7. Line 63: what are the proportion of 675 big private plantations and 67 big state plantations?
8. Line 108: any references for non-market arrangements?
9. Line 154: What are the example of enabling factors?
10. Line 162: why in setting price, the mills disregard the quality of the FFBs? This should be included in sustainable plantation practices.
11. Line 183: In total, how many participants were interviewed? What are the criteria of the participants?
12. Line 185: double ‘affairs’ word?
13. Line 188: Any specific reason why only in this area (Jambi)? The largest palm oil production in Indonesia?
14. Line 200 Figure 1: were incentives only given to local govt? Arrow not clear. Any arrow line from local govt to program & policy?
15. Line 237: what is RSPO? What the problems and challenges with this one?
16. Line 259: any references for ‘many cases’ here?
17. Line 333: What are the difficulties to make this ICS inspectors position as a permanent job?
18. Line 340: Is the price always below 30%? Any evidence of that much?
19. Line 342: What are the benefits of this farmers group association compared to cooperative?
20. Line 345: why gapoktan is not recognized as a fully formal legal entity of farmers association?
21. Line 351: What about making contracts with gapoktan?
22. Line 383: which one is more precise: 2% or or 3% as mentioned in Line 65?
23. Line 592: In practice, is it available or not to get budget from district/city? OR, becomes another problems?
24. Line 705: What is OJK?
25. Line 744 (Discussion): Can we learn from the practices of smallholders certification in other countries?
26. Line 787-788: any references for the statement “some smallholders fail to be certified…”?
27. Line 792: NTFP, write in full, then the initial.
28. Line 796- (Conclusions and Recommendations): Should focus on its impacts on smallholders certification.
29. Line 815: so oil palm is a non-monoculture plantation?
30. Line 816: What is unconventional CPO, such as red palm oil? New idea needed to be elaborated more.

Hope it is useful to improve the quality of the article. Thank you and good luck.

Author Response

Please see attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

This manuscript is a good start to understanding how policies impact the sustainability of the oil palm industry in Indonesia. However, the co-authors need to make improvements to the manuscript in order for this to be suitable for publication in MDPI Land. I would be willing to review this manuscript after co-authors have made the following SEVEN substantive edits as well as minor line-number specific edits:

1) It is difficult to understand the research and results since maps are not used. Please add two maps:

a) The first map would be a new Figure 1 showing the study area with an inset map of eastern Asia. Include in the legend a kilometer scale and north arrow. This would be added to the Introduction section.

b) The second map would be a map of just Indonesia showing areas of oil palm production relative to other coverages such as tropical forest. It would be great to have points representing processors. This would be Figure 3 and added to one of the sections on your results or referenced in the Discussion section.

2) Add more background information on GAP since the average cross-disciplinary reader does not automatically know what this means. GAP is critical to meeting sustainable certification in a lot of agricultural industries. Add more to complete the paragraph on L111-114.

3) This manuscript is classified as an “Article” and not a “Review” even though it is organized like a review article. What classifies this as an “Article” is that you surveyed government officials. However, it is not clear who these officials are beyond which departments you approached. You need to explain how you did your survey so other researchers could repeat the analysis, and what exactly were the contributions of these surveyed government officials were to your results.

a) Please add a new Table 1 in the Methods section summarizing who you surveyed by type of government official, how many officials per type of government office, key characteristics of professionals, etc.

b) Describe better in the Methods section the details on who, when, and how these surveys were conducted. Were these paper based surveys? Phone surveys? E-mail? Where were the surveys conducted if they were given in person?

4) The organization of results on L554-736 are in bullet point format. Please add a Figure or Table summarizing these bullet points in either a diagram or a tabular format respectively (which ever presents your results more clearly). Change the writing to paragraph format and write in more of a summary style since you now have a new Figure 4 (or Table 3) to refer to in the writing.

5) US currency should read “US $1.19” and please make these changes are made on L571-572 and ANYWHERE ELSE. Also please note that the “US$” is separate from the number. You need to add US $ equivalents on L388-390 in parentheses after each Indonesian currency and likewise present both Indonesian currency (US $) such as on L571-572 where only US $ are presented (you need both Indonesian currency units and US $ presented).

6) The abbreviations you use do not match the English translation (e.g., L246-277, L304-306, L426, L462-464, L477, L481, L505-506, L515-516, L548-549, L581, L589, L595, L617-620, L623-630, L649, L675, L684-685, and L716-720). For example, Non-Forested Area is NFA and not APL. Please explain this. Does the abbreviation correspond to another language? This is not always the case, for example Internal Control System (ICS) on L329-330 makes sense.

7) Please IMPROVE your Discussion section which should have two sub-sections:

a) Expand on the contrasts and linkages between your results and results of prior literature (new sub-section 5.1.). Please expand the writing for this. There is no substantive contrast and discussion on this and this could easily be a few paragraphs of writing in its own section. There is only one reference cited in the entire section [85]. By prior literature, I mean other studies that have done similar analyses and interviews with agricultural producers (not necessarily just oil palm).

b) Discussing major themes or limitations to the implications of your research results: What is currently written as your Discussion should be enough for this sub-section 5.2.

Specific Line Number of Manuscript Figure/Table comments (note that requested change of word(s) in quotations where NO edits need to be made for writing before/after each “…”):

L1-3 – The title can be improved to reflect how land is involved in your analysis.

L73-74 – Change start of sentence to “Economic and political aspects of ISPO are discussed, which consider…”

L76 – Change start of sentence to “Other research focus on discussing…”

L79 – Change sentence to “Incentives are needed for ISPO implementation [26,31,32].”

L80-81 – Change sentence to “However, the kind of roles such incentives can play and the options for these types of incentives have not been explored.”

L82 – Change start of sentence to “Our research provides scientific information…”

L88 – Add the following sentence to the end of this last paragraph “In addition to providing a thorough literature review, we surveyed government officials to shape our summaries of the challenges (section 3) for and types of incentives (section 4) available to Indonesian palm oil producers to encourage greater adoption of sustainability certification.”

L89-92 – Delete this since there is no need to state this since it is already described in the sentence added above regarding how the research objectives were met.

L111-114 – Add more sentences to this paragraph on GAP

L132-137 – Add these 2 sentences to the end of the preceding paragraph

L162 – What does FFB’s stand for?

L168 – When using abbreviations, it is wise to remind the reader what these mean at the start of every section since many readers do not read straight through. Change start of sentence to “Indonesia Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO) incentives are undertaken…”

L178-181 – Add these 2 sentences to the end of the preceding paragraph

L192-195 – Add these 2 sentences to the end of the preceding paragraph

L225-232 – Add this to after the solo sentence on L196

L234 – Indent this paragraph

L237 – Should be “ISPO” and not “RSPO”

L246-258 – Combine into ONE paragraph

L259-268 – Combine into ONE paragraph

L379 – Change to “…of between 500 and 1,000 hectares…”

L381-384 – Add these 2 sentences to the end of the preceding paragraph

L390 – To be consistent with 2 lines above, change end of sentence to “…costs around Rp 350,000-400,000 per hectare.” noting that you have a space between the “Rp” currency unit symbol and the number.

L391-395 – Add these 2 sentences to the end of the preceding paragraph

L402 – Do NOT use abbreviations in section or sub-section titles so change to “4. Options for Sustainable Certification Incentives for Smallholders”

L404 – When using abbreviations, it is wise to remind the reader what these mean at the start of every section since many readers do not read straight through. Change to “…smallholders in Indonesia Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO) implementation as follows:”

L406-410 – Add these 2 sentences to the start of the following paragraph

L423 – Why is “No Administrative Sanction” capitalized?

L455 – Do NOT capitalize words in table title headers with the exception of the first word

L472 – What does “MoEF’s” stand for?

L498-500 – Add these 2 sentences to the start of the following paragraph

L705 – What does OJK stand for?

L730 – What does CPO stand for?

L745-746 – When using abbreviations, it is wise to remind the reader what these mean at the start of every section since many readers do not read straight through. Change to “…to ensure Indonesia Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO) certification happens.”

L793 – What does NTFP stand for?

L797-798 – When using abbreviations, it is wise to remind the reader what these mean at the start of every section since many readers do not read straight through. Change to “…remain in implementing Indonesia Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO) as mandatory certification for...”

Author Response

Please see attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 4 Report

Dear Authors,

Thank you for the opportunity to review the manuscript entitled “Incentives for Palm Oil Smallholders in Mandatory Certification in Indonesia”. The manuscript deals with the palm oil, highlighting challenges and criticalities towards its sustainable certification in Indonesia. You have investigated a topical concern. However, several major issues should be addressed, such as an increase in the literature review, as well as an enhancement of the section “Materials and Methods”. You have done several efforts to address the purpose of your research, but substantial revisions are required before I can confidentially suggest its acceptance. The research has a great potential, but you should enhance the scientific soundness.

Recommendation: Major review

Best regards

Reviewer’s comments:

Abstract: The abstract is clear and comprehensive. I have one minor suggestions. The authors should indicate the methodology applied in their research. Please, clarify the aims and scope of the research in the light of the applied methodology.

Keywords: The authors could increase the number of keywords as to increase the visibility of the manuscript, for instance by including “certification”.

Introduction: The section “Introduction” is clear, but some issues should be addressed.

First, I suggest the authors not distinguishing between two different sub-sections. It seems better to have two different sections, namely “Introduction” and “Literature review”.

Lines 38-48. The authors should include some more references to highlight the legislative framework which established the sustainability standard. Is it possible to cite the official document provided by the Indonesian Government?

Lines 49-64. The authors could try to summarize the historical background and evolution of the ISPO, as to make it clearer to readers.

Line 70. Is it possible to provide some more statistics and figures on Indonesian palm oil production? It emerges that Indonesia ranks as the largest palm oil producer. It seems essential to understand its market value and perhaps its historical background, also in the light of the most recent issues related to palm oil production. At line 39 it is stated that the ISPO has been introduced to improve palm oil sector sustainability. I suggest the authors specifying the idea behind such a need. 

Lines 84-86. The authors present two research questions, but question marks are missing.

The authors should better clarify the originality and utility of their research. Why is so important to investigate such an issue? To whom is the research addressed? Please, clarify the aims and scope of the research in the light of the applied methodology.

Literature review: Literature review is clear. I have some minor suggestions.

Lines 94-95: Please, provide some references which state that an increased demand for changes in the production of commodities towards sustainable development is required. Please, consider the subsequent references, which deal with the theme of sustainability for agri-food commodities:

• Aibar-Guzmán, B., García-Sánchez, I.-M., Aibar-Guzmán, C., Hussain, N. (2022). Sustainable product innovation in agri-food industry: Do ownership structure and capital structure matter? Journal of Innovation & Knowledge, 7(1),100160, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jik.2021.100160.
• Bux, C., Varese, E., Amicarelli, V., Lombardi, M. (2022). Halal Food Sustainability between Certification and Blockchain: A Review. Sustainability, 14(4), 2152. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14042152

• Fiore, M., Silvestri, R., Contò, F., Pellegrini, G. (2017). Understanding the relationship between green approach and marketing innovations tools in the wine sector. Journal of Cleaner Production, 142(4), 4085-4091, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.10.026.

Further, the authors should enhance literature review with reference to palm oil, highlights that several studies have been dedicated to such a commodity, but less (or none) have investigated sustainable certification.

Materials and Methods: “Materials and methods” should be substantially revised. The authors should indicate the specific method applied to conduct the literature review, highlighting at least: (a) typology of literature review conducted (i.e., systematic, semi-systematic, integrative); (b) review criteria; (c) research strings; (d) data collection process and data analysis. Please, consider the subsequent articles to enhance the quality and clarity of your research:

• Snyder, H. (2019). Literature review as a research methodology: An overview and guidelines. Journal of Business Research, 2019, 2014, 333–339. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.07.039

The description of the in-depth interview should be enhanced. The authors need to define the sampling strategy of the key stakeholders or, at least, the reasons of the choice of the participants to the interview. Further, it is essential to refer to previous successful studies which applied in-depth interviews. It helps in strengthening the methodological approach of the research. It is essential to define the process of conducting the in-depth interviews, by highlighting main items of the research, as well as aims and scope of it. Further, the authors should highlight how data collected during the interview have been analyzed (e.g., content analysis). If it can help you, please consider the subsequent study and structure the section “Materials and Methods” accordingly.

• Galati, A., Alaimo, L.S., Ciaccio, T., Vrontis, D. and Fiore, M. (2022). Plastic or not plastic? That’s the problem: analysing the Italian students purchasing behavior of mineral water bottles made with eco-friendly packaging, Resources, Conservation and Recycling, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2021.106060.

The authors should adopt the subsequent structure of the manuscript: Introduction, Literature Review, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions.

Therefore, the authors have asked to highlight the process of data collection and analysis. How many articles have been selected during the literature review? How many interviews have been collected during the in-depth interviews? How such results have been catalogues and analyzed?

I have some suggestions to improve the manuscript. Perhaps, the authors can identify some research items and/or keywords and investigate results and discussions accordingly. For instance, the authors could explore the oil palm issue under the legal perspective, the managerial perspective, the financial perspective, the theoretical perspective, etc.

I expect reading some tables presenting results of the literature review, as well as table summarizing results of the in-depth interviews. Data are essential to make results and discussions reliable. If not, your research does not reach a scientific soundness.

Results and discussions should be developed starting from the results of the literature review and from the results in-depth interview. The research should be replicable: it means that, if I carry out the same research and if I apply the same methodology, I can reach the same results of your research. No additional personal consideration should be added in results, whereas such considerations are required in the section “Discussion”, as well as comparisons with previous research.

As a general suggestion, please try to avoid redundancies and consider including tables instead of long bullet points (e.g., lines 583-659; lines 672-726).

Discussion: “Discussion” should move from previous results. The authors are asked to provide theoretical and managerial implications of their research, also by referring to previous research and adding novelty/originality or their study. If the authors are willing to, it is possible to put together “Results and discussion”.

General suggestions: Include tables and figures, which increase clarity of the research. Consider comparability and replicability of your research.

Author Response

Please see attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 3 Report

This manuscript is a great start to understanding how policies impact the sustainability of the oil palm industry in Indonesia. The co-authors have made suggested improvements to the manuscript in order for this to be suitable for publication in MDPI Land. I do NOT need to review the final edits for this manuscript after co-authors have made the following THREE substantive edit as well as minor line-number specific edits (these improvements will make the manuscript easier to read and to understand):

1) Thank-you for adding the requested two maps. Please add a legend for the inset map for Figure 1 on L50-51 since the distance scale is different. For Figure 2 on L79-80, you also need to add a distance scale in the legend. Also, for the color bar on the bottom it is not clear if the different colors correspond to area or total production or something else since the numbers are not consistent with either of these. Whatever the unit is for the colors, please label this clearly. Please make sure the numbers on the color scale are at a 45 degree angle so the number ranges are easier to read.

2) Please make what is on L128-444 into a section titled Literature Review and please update the sub-section and sub-sub-section title numbers accordingly in addition to making the titles for these more simple and clear (see line number specific edits below).

3) MDPI journals have templates that use both right and left justification, meaning the space between words is automatically changed so the writing is perfectly justified on both the left and right margins. You have done this manually since you have used hyphens. Thus this is not correct. The problem with this in addition to not adhering to MDPI required paragraph formatting is that when you make changes, words get moved forward for example and you are stuck with a word that has a hyphen where there should be no hyphen. Please make sure this is corrected at the source by formatting the paragraphs correctly and then remove all hyphens used when you inserted them manually to break up words. Please download the MDPI Land template again and review this.

Specific Line Number of Manuscript Figure/Table comments (note that requested change of word(s) in quotations where NO edits need to be made for writing before/after each “…”):

L30 – Delete the word “improve” so this reads properly in English

L42 – Change start of sentence to “The location of Indonesia…”

L45 – Change to “…for 2020, Indonesia accounted”

L48-49 – This a stray sentence so please add to the end of the paragraph above on L47

L68 – Add a space before citation so change to “Palm Oil [8].”

L94 – Change to “…big challenge remains for palm”

L95 – Change to “oil smallholders’ certifications in…”

L96 – Change to “…with any companies.”

L103 – Change to “…in place without state involvement…”

L104 – Change start of sentence to “Past research has focused on discussing…”

L107 – Delete the hyphen so reads “…kind of roles incentives can”

L123 – Change end of sentence to “…what innovative mechanisms are needed.”

L124 – Change end of sentence and start of next sentence to “…in the existing literature. Our research targets the”

L127-128 – Add “2. Literature Review”

L128 – Change to “2.1. Incentives and Certification”

L132 – Change to “with less impacts on society and the environment, and…”

L159 – Change to “…cultivation practices’ complexity”

L163 – Delete the end parentheses “)” prior to the citation at the end since there is no corresponding open parentheses in the sentence

L169 – Change to “…having proof of certification helps customers…”

L176 – Delete the word “the” so this reads better

L178 – Change to “…who complain about…”

L179-180 – Change to “…may not address the Southern hemisphere’s producers’ needs [58]. For example, Southern hemisphere countries initiated…”

L181-183 – Change to “…second type of regulation-based incentive [49]. While regulations give certainty, effective implementation depends on…”

L199 – Change to “prices to allow smallholders to cover certification costs.”

L200-201 – Change to “…not only a sector made up of industrial plantations.”

L214 – Change to “Oil palm plantations in Indonesia are facing…”

L219 – What is RSPO? Should that be ISPO?

L226 – Change sub-sub-section header to “2.2.1. Legal perspectives: land and business legality problems”

L249 – Change to “match”

L252 – What do you mean by scheme smallholders? What is the scheme?

L286-287 – Change start of sentence to “Social Forestry is most appropriate for use to counter act of omissions in…”

L293 – Change to “in/around forested areas for more…”

L296 – Change to “forested areas are eligible in terms of the land legality…”

L320 – Change to “government should revise this within…”

L326 – Shorten title so change sub-sub-section header to “2.2.2. Managerial perspectives of smallholders and their organizations”

L328 – Change start of sentence to “From a managerial perspective, capacities…”

L329 – Change to organization level, and…”

L341 – Change to “ISPO, is the adoption of Good Agricultural Practices (GAP). The government…”

L343-344 – Change to “Furthermore, additional focus should be given…”

L354 – Change to “access to their production inputs [65,71].”

L359-360 – Change to “…a cooperative, farmer group, and farmer group association [6].”

L360-361 – Again, you want to clarify what a scheme smallholder is…what is the scheme?

L379-380 – Change to “…situation, resource and commodity availability, as well as harmony for members’ improvement and business”

L381 – Remove both commas

L420 – Shorten title so change sub-sub-section header to “2.2.3. Lack of financing for certification”

L437-439 – This is not a complete paragraph of 3 sentences or more so please add on to the end of the preceding paragraph on L436

L445 – Change to “3. Materials and Methods”

L461 – What is “[PP23]”?

L473 – Change to “around 200 peer-reviewed journal articles using…”

L475 – Change to “questions. We then identified…”

L476 – Clarify so change entire sentence to “Next, we identified problems with existing interpretations and findings in order to develop relevant policy recommendations.”

L480-481 – Change to “…in-depth interviews help researchers…” since you need to discuss this more generally and not specific to your research for this manuscript

L482 – What is “[PP27]”?

L483 – Change to “…set of questions are formulated…”

L484 – Change start of sentence to “Here, researchers use open-ended questions…”

L492 – Change to “…were conducted with a Jambi…”

L493-494 – Change to “…oil producer nor has the largest number of smallholders.”

L495 – Change to “…smallholder groups navigate their many challenges in…”

L511 – Change to “Table 2. Key informants interviewed on Indonesia’s oil palm industry.”

L522 – Simplify title so change to “4. Results of Interviews”

L523 – Simplify sub-section title so change to “4.1. Managing Legality Aspects”

L524 – Change to “…admitted the slow rate of ISPO…”

L529 – Change to “the Job Creation Law and the MoEF (Ministry of Environment and Forestry) is…”

L531 – Change to “not have funds for managing these administrative procedures.”

L534 – Change to “Figure 3. Research framework on Indonesia’s oil palm industry.”

L552 – Change start of sentence to “In this case, the informant…”

L571 – Change to “…Jambi Provincial Government, and smallholder organizations"

L572 - Change start of sentence to “A similar situation is encountered when managing…”

L575 – Simplify sub-section title so change to “4.2. Managing Managerial Aspects”

L577-578 – Change to “…associations and the NGO facilitating smallholders’ certification expected the government to play more of an active role in…”

L583 – Change to “…with a maximum 1 year contract.”

L594 – Change start of sentence to “This prevented them from optimally rendering their services.”

L600 – Remove extra comma

L601 – Change to “…to join cooperatives. Many producers and their communities have had bad experiences in the past with the KUD”

L605 – Change start of sentence to “The modernization of cooperatives…”

L609 – Change to “centers”

L611 – I assume this is from one of the entities you surveyed? If so, change to “…according to a surveyed NGO.” If not, only use “an” if preceding a word starting in a vowel.

L614 – Remove the word “function” so this reads better

L619 – Change to “organizations” here and elsewhere in the manuscript using Word’s Find & Replace function

L622-623 – Change entire sentence to “Due to limited mini palm oil processing units, smallholders are heavily dependent on palm oil processing mills.”

L626 – Change to “…sophisticated manufacturing processes like the…”

L633 – Change to “among smallholders for the need to develop a partnership with palm oil industry’s input and milling sectors,”

L638 – Simplify sub-section title so change to “4.3. Managing Financial Aspects”

L646-647 – Change to “…funding proposals for facilitating STDB are usually not…”

L649 – Put in parentheses what this is in US $???-???.

L659 – Change to “standards for the obligation of tax reporting…”

L660 – Change to “…in appropriate amounts and…”

L661-662 – Change entire sentence to “It costs a lot to maintain certification.”

L662-664 – Change end of paragraph to “For example in 2012, the cost of annual surveillance audits and the cost of improvements based on these audits both ranged from US $1.19 to US $34.99 per hectare [103]. This is very difficult for smallholders to afford.”

L665 – Simplify sub-section title so change to “4.4. Financial Sources for Developing Incentives”

L681 – Change to “…by a technical committee that has…”

L682 – Change to “to palm oil plantations and their industry.”

L695 – Change to “and district levels.”

L704 – Change to “…in using village funds”

L710 – Remove hyphen so change to “awareness”

L712 – Remove hyphen so change to “Development”

L717 – Remove hyphen so change to “respondent”

L739 – What does “BKF” stand for?

L747 – What does “BPDLH” stand for?

L766 – What does “OJK” stand for?

L779 – What does “KUD” stand for?

L783-784 – Change to “…and pre- and post-harvest credit facilities.”

L788 – Change to “5. Discussion”

L789 – Change to “5.1. Identification of Incentives for Indonesian Palm Oil Smallholders”

L795 – Change to “socialization”

L807 – Change to “formed by other government entities while ISPO…”

L812 – Change to “funding from the private sector can be mobilized…”

L817-818 – Change to “…smallholder partnership models from emphasizing one-roof management models for coordination…”

L821 – Change to “Table 3. Incentives for Indonesian palm oil smallholders.”

L821-822 – Change the titles in the table column headers for 2^nd column to “Topic Reviewed” and for the 3^rd column to “Literature Cited”

L824 – Change to “5.2. Further Insights on the Incentives for Indonesian Palm Oil Smallholders”

L842 – Change to “market development approaches for sustainable…”

L860 – Change to “…shows that when the government is permissive, this tends to lead to widespread acts of omissions.”

L863-864 – Change to “…ISPO will lead to sanctions, promoting ISPO to smallholders could lead to some benefits.”

L868-871 – Change entire sentence to “However, alternative palm oil systems requires more nuanced market development due to a lack of integration with existing palm oil value chains which prefer industrial plantation-style production.”

L872 – What does CPO stand for?

L877 – Change to “6. Conclusions and Recommendations”

L878 – Change start of sentence to “Our research concludes that…”

L880 – Clarify what you mean by “scheme”

L885 – Change to “....their organization, and financial needs to implementing ISPO.”

L888 – Change start of sentence to “These incentives are not exclusively targeted toward smallholders. Some incentives are…”

L895 – Change to “improve coordination and political support. This provision of…”

L895-896 – Remove hyphen so change to “smallholders”

L896-897 – Change to “…and increase access to markets and finance.”

Author Response

Please find the response to Reviewer 3 comments enclosed. Thank you in advance. 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 4 Report

Dear Authirs,

Thank you for the opportunity to read the revised version of the manuscript entitled “Incentives for Palm Oil Smallholders in Mandatory Certification in Indonesia”. You have substantially revised the manuscript according to reviewer’s comments and suggestions. The manuscript investigates a topical concern and presents novel insights and clear outcomes. The methodology is appropriate (i.e., qualitative methodology based on literature review, policy documents and in-depth interviews) and the aims and scopes are clear and comprehensive.

You have enlarged the theoretical background of the analysis, highlighting the main drivers towards the enhancement of the ISPO certification in the palm oil sector, and have clarified the need to improve palm oil sector sustainability. Further, you have included Figure 2, which provided interesting (and transparent) statistics and figures related to the Indonesian palm oil production. As regards the novelty of the present research, yuo have discussed its importance among practitioners and academics in contributing to the academic debate. 

“Materials and Methods” have been substantially revised. you have declared the use of a qualitative approach which includes a semi-systematic literature review complemented by in-depth interviews. Both methods have been clearly presented and described in detail. The research framework illustrated in Figure 3 is clear.

“Results” and “Discussions” are comprehensive. The manuscript has reached a great scientific soundness and I can confidentially suggest its acceptance for publication in Land. 

Recommendation: Accepted

Best regards

Author Response

Thank you for  your reviewing. 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx