**6. How to govern palm oil production to militate against food insecurity**

There must be changes to the use of palm oil if the direct and indirect food security contributions of the crop are to be maintained. One of such measures is through private regulatory regimes such as voluntary certification as practised under the Roundtable on Sustainable Soy. So, palm oil sustainability should be effectively promoted in order that plantation areas can be certified by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) established since 2014 under the Swiss Civil Code. Oil palm producing nations should adopt the food security criteria developed by ZEF in 2015. It is expected to be integrated in sustainability standards for different crops. This is likely to ensure that human rights to food at local level is not violated and the nations buying palm oil are complying with good purchasing practices required by international bodies like UN, OECD and EU.

In order to further reduce the direct consequences of large oil palm plantations on food and livelihood security of rural and indigenous communities, the government of oil palm producing areas regions should allow only acquisition of reserve agricultural land or unused land instead of "grabbing lands" that are already in use by local communities. This is because acquiring forested land or forest dwellings or lands that are lived on and farmed by local communities for generations is likely to cause conflict and deprive the local people from using the area for arable crop production most beneficial to their livelihood.

Another way to promote food security while encouraging oil palm cultivation is through food crop integration into plantations [32]. With crop integration as practised in Malaysia, Nigeria and other oil palm growing nations, food availability is promoted. Crops integrated include – pineapple, groundnut, banana, soya bean, sugar cane, sorghum, sweet corn, sweet potato, green pea, etc. In some cases livestock are reared and made to graze under the palms as being practised by Siat in their plantations in Nigeria, Ghana, and Gabon. In Eastern part of Nigeria, the farmers carry out spacing of their oil palm trees, large enough to prevent the tress from forming canopy, to promote arable farming in the midst of the palms. In this way, the smallholder farmers have adequate supply of vegetable oil and food crops like cassava, yam, vegetables, sweet corn and cocoyam planted in between the oil palms. Thus, food security is promoted.
