Farmers threaten to quit Golkar

TEMANGGUNG, Central Java: Thousands of tobacco farmers have threatened to rescind their membership in the ruling Golkar organization unless the government brings down fertilizer prices.

They charge that the government is responsible for the increased fertilizer price that they fear will deplete their incomes this planting season.

Local farmers are complaining that fertilizer has "disappeared" from most kiosks in the area and the per-kilogram retail price has soared to Rp 475 from the Rp 335 as set by the government.

Temanggung regent Sardjono is taking the farmers' threats lightly. "I think it is a political joke in the lead-up to the 1997 general election," he told The Jakarta Post Tuesday.

He said the fertilizer crisis was over. Speculators have been reprimanded and fertilizer is available at village cooperatives.

Temanggung, Central Java's largest tobacco producer, boasts 23,000 hectares of tobacco farms, which earns the area's 150,000 farmers Rp 675 billion (US$296 million) every harvest season. (wah/pan)