|
 A shortage of cheap fertilizers at a time when an El Nino weather
event is threatening harvests could hurt food supplies in Southeast
Asia's largest economy, scuppering President Joko Widodo's
self-sufficiency targets that are already under pressure due to
rampant corruption in the farm sector.
According to the yet-to-be-published government report, parts of
which were seen by Reuters, as much as 30 percent of subsidized
fertilizers were misallocated in some areas of Indonesia last year.
Investigators with the ombudsman found subsidized fertilizer being
sold at as high as 2,500 rupiah ($0.1854) per kg in 2015, around 40
percent above the state-set price but below the non-subsidized 4,200
rupiah that plantations must pay.
"The kiosks are selling fertilizer to plantations and not to the
small farmers," said an investigator, who declined to be named as
the report, based on data from five key rice-growing districts on
three different islands, had not been finalised.
Disorderly distribution and scant oversight have also allowed many
of the country's 44,000 state-approved farm retailers to collude
amongst themselves to sell subsidized fertilizers at higher prices,
the investigator added.
Suwandi, head of the information and data center at the agriculture
ministry, said: "Basically, we do not tolerate any discrepancy in
the field. It probably happened case by case, but we encourage local
governments to strengthen supervision."
"In 2015, there were 40 cases processed by law enforcement. It is
better now. Before farmers were complaining about fertilizer
scarcity, now not as much."
Hasil Sembiring, the ministry's director general of food crops, also
said he had not heard of any problems in distribution this year.
"If it happens, please report it as soon as possible and if possible
please report where it happened and when," said Sembiring, who is in
charge of monitoring crop production and in contact with farmers on
issues such as fertilizer distribution.
Some farmers, however, say the situation this year remains pretty
much the same as in 2015.
"We are only getting about half of our subsidized fertilizer,"
farmer Setyarman told Reuters via a translator at his home in
Sukoharjo, Central Java - a rice-producing region.
"Distributors and retailers hold on to their stock and when there is
a scarcity they sell it at higher prices that most small farmers
can't afford."
In Sukoharjo alone, at least $1.58 million of subsidized fertilizers
did not make it to their intended beneficiaries in 2015, according
to the report.
[to top of second column] |
LIMITED SUCCESS
The subsidized fertilizer scheme is Indonesia's biggest farm support
program at 30.1 trillion rupiah, accounting for around half of this
year's agriculture budget. It allows only small farmers with 2
hectares or less of land to buy government-supported fertilizer at
below-market prices.
But its success has so far been limited as evident from the fact
that annual rice crop output has held at around 36 million tonnes
since 2011 despite a 60 percent jump in subsidies.
In fact, last year local rice prices rose 13 percent, versus a 16
percent drop in the Asian benchmark, partly due to the misallocation
of subsidized fertilizers. Around 74 percent of Indonesia's 14.14
million rice farming households own less than 1 hectare of farmland,
statistics bureau data shows.
State-owned fertilizer company, PT Pupuk, has tried to resolve
distribution problems by making subsidized products pink so they are
easy to identify, but experts say retailers can easily wash or mix
the products to make them the normal white.
"We work hard to prevent the subsidized fertilizer from going into
the wrong hands," said company spokesman Wijaya Laksana. "But ... we
simply can't work alone to prevent this from happening again. We
need help from local authorities."
Subsidized fertilizers are produced by state-owned firms in volumes
that are determined by parliament with inputs from farm groups. This
is sent to 2,485 distributors and 274 farm cooperatives, who with
the help of government officials then decide how much is to be
distributed to the 44,000 retailers.
In Sukoharjo, an employee at government-approved distributor Subur
Makmur said retailers were hiking prices of subsidized fertilizers
to cover "operational costs".
For rice farmer Setyarman, the increasing cost of fertilizer means
fending for himself to ensure a good harvest. "Our only alternative
now is to use organic fertilizer that we make ourselves."
(Additional reporting by Michael Taylor and Fergus Jensen, reporting
by Randy Fabi in Sukoharjo and Bernadette Christina Munthe in
Jakarta; Editing by Himani Sarkar)
[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2016 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
