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.
Husin added that national production capacity for urea fertilizer was
now about 8 million tons, while the national need for this type of
fertilizer was 9 million tons.
In the interest of fertilizer consumers in the country, the government
continues to encourage fertilizer industries, including PT Petrokimia
Gresik, to grow.
"This is important to realize economic
resilience, for example, by advancing the development of domestic
strategic economic sectors," the minister pointed out while observing PT
Petrokimia Gresik in East Java on Friday (March 27).
Fertilizer
is one of the products of the country's priority industries in the
agricultural sector, which contributes 20 percent to the agricultural
products and 15 to 30 percent to the rice farming production costs, he
noted.
"Therefore, it is important to maintain the smoothness of distribution
and stability of prices of fertilizers. It should not be left entirely
up to the market mechanism," the minister remarked.
The problems that the country's fertilizer industries now face include
the use of inefficient, old machines, which leads to a decline in
production.
In addition, natural gas supplies to factories producing fertilizers
are limited, while the demand for gas for fertilizer production
continues to increase, particularly when production is declining.
The usage of inorganic fertilizers is also drastically on the rise as a
result of farmers' interest in the use of this type of fertilizer.
After all, farming land acreage is also expanding, while the use of
organic fertilizers is not very popular yet.
In the face of these conditions, the Ministry of Industry is moving
expeditiously by taking a number steps, such as revitalizing fertilizer
industries. It renovated four old and inefficient urea fertilizer
factories and is building another new one.
Furthermore, the ministry will also implement a coal gas development
program to replace natural gas with coal gas for fertilizer industries
and build factories in the locations of natural gas sources.
He
noted that the country's policy on fertilizers in the agricultural
sector was aimed at the utilization of compound and organic fertilizers,
while single fertilizer would only be used as an additional nutrient
for the soil and plants.
It
is believed that with the rise in fertilizer production, farmers' need
would be met. More importantly, the distribution of the fertilizers
would not be misappropriated.
PT
Petrokimia Gresk's Public Relations Manager Yusuf Wibisono said that
his side hoped that the allocation of subsidized fertilizers would not
be abused, although the government has set up a Fertilizer and Pesticide
Supervisory Commission (KP3).
"We hope all sides will take part in the supervision of the fertilizer
allocation to prevent the commodity from being misappropriated and from
failure to reach their targeted recipients. Even though the KP3 has been
formed, it would be better if people take part in the supervision as
well," Wibisono remarked.
With
the participation of the people, subsidized fertilizers such as urea
fertilizer, which constitutes the largest allocation, could reach
farmers effectively.
PT Petrokimia Gresik is tightening its supervision of subsidized
fertilizers sent to distributors and retailers to prevent any deviation
during the distribution process.
Moreover, Corporate Secretary of PT Petrokimia Gresik Wahjudi revealed
that internal supervision was carried out in response to reports that
many deviations had taken place during the distribution of subsidized
fertilizers in various regions. The modus operandi was that the
fertilizers were taken outside the distribution region to other areas
for sale to non-intended recipients.
The other form of misappropriation involves subsidized fertilizers
being sold at a price far below the government's sanctioned upper level
price reference (HET), or being hoarded or diverted to non-subsidized
fertilizers by replacing their original sacks.
"Misappropriation of fertilizers is an act against the law that can be taken to court," Wahjudi cautioned.
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(T.A014/INE)
EDITED BY INE
(T.A014/A/A. Abdussalam/A. Abdussalam) 31-03-2015 19:0 |
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