Govt to clamp down on poor fertilizer

JAKARTA (JP): The government plans to clamp down on producers and distributors of substandard fertilizers which have found their way to the market during the recent supply shortage of the product, a senior official of the Ministry of Agriculture said on Thursday.

Secretary-General Syarifuddin Karama said the ministry had drafted a new regulation designed to stop such actions.

"We have sent the latest draft to the State Secretariat," Syarifuddin was quoted by Antara as saying in Malang, East Java.

The regulation would establish penalties for producers and distributors of substandard fertilizers, he said without giving details.

The government would also appoint several laboratories to conduct tests on fertilizers, he added. He listed Brawijaya University, in Malang; the Bogor Institute of Agriculture; Jember University and Hasanuddin University among the possible laboratories which would be employed for the task.

The supply shortage has led to a surge in the sale of substandard fertilizers to rice farmers across the country.

The East Kalimantan provincial administration found at least eight tons of substandard SP-36 fertilizer, normally used for rice and other food crops, being sold in local markets last month.

Further worsening the shortage of fertilizer supplies is the sale of subsidized fertilizers intended for rice farmers to plantation firms. Government officials said that distributors preferred to sell the fertilizer to the highest bidder.

Even after the government's decision to phase out subsidies on fertilizers and to lift import restrictions on the product, supplies remained low while prices soared.

High fertilizer prices led to a riot in Central Java, where a number of people were injured and dozens of shops and vehicles were damaged.

Syarifuddin said the government planned to import fertilizers, including 130,000 tons of potassium chloride, between 100,000 and 150,000 tons of TSP and between 60,000 and 80,000 tons of ZA.

The first shipments would arrive this month, he added. (gis)