COMPETITIVENESS OF FERTILIZER DEPENDS ON GAS PRICE

By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, April 17 (Antara) - Indonesia is now going all out in developing its agricultural sector to increase food products, rice in particular, in efforts to maintain its food resilience and achieve food self-sufficiency.          Towards this end, fertilizer plays a central role in boosting agricultural products. However this commodity still lacks competitiveness in the face of imported one as fertilizer industry at home uses gas in its production process.          Moreover, gas sold to fertilizer and petrochemical industries is still expensive, notably about US$6 per million metric british thermal unit (mmbtu), or far higher than that of overseas where fertilizer and chemical industries purchase gas with an average price of $2 per mmbtu.          The relatively high gas price supplied to domestic fertilizer and chemical industries weakens the competitive edge of fertilizer against the same product imported from other countries.          Hence, lawmaker Dito Ganinduto, a member of Commission VII on energy affairs of the House of Representatives (DPR) urged the government to protect national fertilizer industry by lowering gas prices sold to industry so that fertilizer industry at home could compete with imported fertilizers.

GOVT TO BOOST DEVELOPMENT OF FERTLIZER INDUSTRY

By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, March 31 (Antara) -- Indonesian farmers need some 14 million tons of subsidized fertilizers annually, whereas the government's allocation still accounts for only 9.55 million tons, leaving a shortage of 4.45 million tons.              Therefore, the government continues to encourage the development of the fertilizer industry, particularly as this commodity is a decisive factor in the government's efforts to achieve national food resilience.              Industry Minister Saleh Husin said that the government's efforts to boost the fertilizer industry to achieve national food resilience is in line with President Joko Widodo's idea of Nawacita, a Sanskrit term for nine national priority development programs.              According to the public relations manager of state-owned fertilizer company PT Petrokimia Gresik, Yusuf Wibisono, of the 9.55 million tons of government-allocated fertilizer, 4.1 million tons are urea fertilizer, 850 thousand tons are SP-36 fertilizer, 1.050 million tons are ZA fertilizer, 2.55 million tons are NPK fertilizer, and one million tons are organic fertilizer.

GOVT ASSIGNS COOPERATIVES TO DISTRIBUTE FERTILIZERS TO FARMERS

By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, March 11 (Antara) - The government hopes that farmers will not run short of subsidized fertilizers after it increases the role of cooperatives in the supply of the commodity.          Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises Minister Anak Agung Gede Ngurah Puspayoga said the role of cooperatives as the distributors of agricultural commodity will be revived.          The minister noted that cooperatives as the pillar of the nation's economy played the role of a distribution center that makes available stocks such as fertilizers, seeds, and business capital.         "Admittedly, there are many obstacles to restore their role, particularly of the Village Cooperative Units (KUD). Not all of them can serve as distributors. Therefore, we will reorganize and develop them in stages," the minister stated during his working visit to Malang, East Java, last Saturday.          Minister Puspayoga added that cooperatives have been assigned to act as the distributors and retailers of subsidized fertilizers.          On the occasion, the cooperatives minister was accompanied by Trade Minister Rachmat Gobel.

FARMERS CAN CONTINUE TO ENJOY ORGANIC FERTILIZER SUBSIDIES

By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, Feb 18 (Antara) - The farmers and small-scale organic fertilizer producers welcomed a decision by the House of Representatives, in this case Commission IV on agriculture affairs, to withdraw its decision to lift the subsidy on organic fertilizers.          "I am convinced that 180 raw organic fertilizer producers (UPPO) will be very happy with the decision of the House to maintain the subsidy. They can continue their production again," State-owned Enterprises Minister Dahlan Iskan noted on Tuesday.          In an article sent to Antara several days ago, the minister wrote that a total of 180 small organic fertilizer producers had become restless.          The problem was that the Commission IV of the House had decided to lift the subsidy on organic fertilizer.          He noted that a senior official had sent a letter to the fertilizer company, PT Petrokimia Gresik, informing it about the House Commission's decision to lift the subsidy.          This means that PT Petrokimia Gresik, the only company so far purchasing the UPPO products, has to stop buying the UPPO's raw organic fertilizer.          State-owned PT Petrokimia Gresik, which further processes the raw organic fertilizer into a modern product, buys the raw materials from the UPPOs at Rp1.2 thousand per kg and re-sells it to the farmers at Rp500 per kg, which implies that the government provides a subsidy of Rp700 per kg.          So, if the subsidy on organic fertilizer is lifted, then it will stop PT Petrokimia Gresik from buying UPPOs. This means that the UPPOs will have to close their businesses," Dahlan pointed out.

FARMERS CALL FOR SYSTEMATIC FERTILIZER DISTRIBUTION

By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, Oct 17 (ANTARA) - Indonesian farmers have called on the government to formulate a systematic subsidized fertilizer distribution system in order to overcome fertilizer scarcities that often occur at the farmers' level.              So far, distribution of subsidized fertilizers has often been off-target and misappropriated. Some are exported illegally and distributed to the plantation and fishery sectors, causing supply shortage in the food crops agricultural sector.              The illegal distribution and exports of subsidized fertilizers that cause fertilizer scarcities greatly harm the interests of not only the farmers but also of the government's food program, which has been formulated to reinforce the country's food resilience.              Subsidized fertilizers have been designed for the food crops agricultural sector. If fertilizer supplies fall short, farmers are discouraged to cultivate their farms, while at the same time they are expected to increase their production to boost the government's efforts to build the country's food resilience.              "So far, the distribution of some of the subsidized fertilizers has been off-target, namely farmers in the food crops agricultural sector.  The illegal distribution could have happened due to the lack of supervision by the government," Sutrisno Iwantono, the chairman of the Indonesian Farmers Association (HKTI), said last week.              Therefore, he said that the government should formulate a systematic subsidized fertilizer distribution system where data on land (rice fields etc), land owners, farmers, distribution timing and the type of fertilizers needed is also included.              Due to shortage of subsidized fertilizers, farmers held a protest recently and demanded that the government should resolve the country's fertilizer problem immediately.              "The country's fertilizer problem is actually a classical one. Scarcities of supply always take place every year. This should not be left unheeded and we have been upset over the fact that farmers have often failed to harvest due to shortage of fertilizer supplies. The President must interfere in it to help us," Sudir Santoso, presidium chairman of the National Village Officials Organization (Parade), said.              He threatened to organize a large scale protest at the ministry of agriculture if the government failed to resolve fertilizer problems in the country soon.              According to Santoso, fertilizer scarcities in the field are actually caused by problems with the ministry of agriculture. The fact that subsidized fertilizers could not be distributed evenly is just proof of the government's inability in arranging the procurement and the distribution of subsidized fertilizers.              "If the minister has worked correctly but problems still exist, this points to wrongdoings in the lower levels of the state machinery, in my opinion. This must be sanctioned and should not be left unheeded. One should not be afraid of doing this if it is in the interests of the country's farmers," asserted Santoso.              According to him, the government should overcome the fertilizer problems through three instruments, namely regulations, intervention and subsidy distribution that reaches its target.              If the government has applied the three instruments but problems still exist, then it is reasonable to suspect the involvement of a mafia inside the ministry of agriculture, according to Santoso.              "A fertilizer mafia is worse than a terrorist cell because its acts will disturb the food needs of millions of people. Therefore, if the government is not able to solve the problem, we will organize a large scale rally," he threatened.              According to HKTI chairman Sutrisno Iwantono, the problems regarding the distribution of subsidized fertilizers emerged due to the lack of government supervision in the fields.              He said that the HKTI had received many reports on fertilizer misappropriations in the distribution of subsidized fertilizers.              "There are cases where subsidized fertilizers are distributed to parties who are not the right recipients while supervision at the distributor level is weak. It is weak because it does not involve farmers or their organizations. So, the distribution of subsidized fertilizers is prone to misappropriation," Iwantono noted.              Problems in the distribution of subsidized fertilizers have been rising for a long while now. The problem can already be seen when the plan is made on the definitive needs for subsidized fertilizers of farmers groups.             "We suspect there is manipulation in deciding data and figures on the needs for subsidized fertilizers. The supervision is not tight because all stakeholders are not involved and as a result, distribution of fertilizers is prone to misappropriation," he said.              Iwantono explained that the Agriculture Minister's Decree No. 6. /2011 regulated that subsidized fertilizers were only designed for food crop-producing agricultural farmers, not for food crop-producing plantation companies.              Therefore, the government should formulate the mechanism of a systematic distribution system which includes data on farmer's lands, number of farmers, timing of the distribution, type of fertilizers and planting seasons.              "Regional government should fully supervise the distribution of subsidized fertilizers, particularly by the supervision commissions formed in the region. We are afraid that the distribution would be off-target if the system applies direct distribution," Iwantono added.              According to Bambang Tjahjono, president director of fertilizer firm PT Pupuk Kujang, the agricultural sector needs 10.4 million tons of fertilizers.              In 2011, usage of urea fertilizer reached 4.5 million tons, SP-36 fertilizer 721 thousand tons, ZA fertilizer 944 thousand tons and organic fertilizer 375 thousand tons.              Tjahjono said that Indonesia still had major potential for the application of fertilizers because there were still extensive areas outside Java that could be cultivated for agricultural purposes.              So far, he said that agricultural cultivation of rice had only been focused on Java.  "Rice production is so far always focused on Java while the productivity of the farm lands on this island has been stagnant," said Tjahjono.              He informed that rice production in Java in 2011 stood at 20.4 million tons and production is already stagnant. However, fertilizer application outside Java is expected to increase production significantly.              "We have conducted a fertilizer application test on a tidal area in South Kalimantan. Before we used fertilizers, rice production per hectare was about 2 - 3 tons. But by using fertilizers, production increased to about 5 - 6 tons per hectare," he said.              Seeing the potential outside Java, Tjahono asked all stakeholders in the food sector to develop rice fields in provinces outside Java.***2***  (T.A014/A/KR-BSR/A/A014) 17-10-2012 17:47: