Govt urged to provide adequate urea supplies
Govt urged to provide adequate urea supplies
JAKARTA (JP): Legislators and analysts hoped farmers would be guaranteed adequate supplies of urea fertilizer following the government's recent decision to raise the agrochemical's prices.
Agricultural economist Soekartiwi said the government should secure plentiful supplies of both tablet-form and granulated urea on the market so farmers could buy the fertilizer at the government-set prices.
"The right amount of fertilizer should be provided at the right time to prevent shortages like those last year from recurring," Soekartiwi was quoted by Antara as saying.
She was commenting on the government's decision on Wednesday to increase the price of tablet and granular urea fertilizer to Rp 330 (14 U.S. cents) a kilogram. Previously, tablet urea was priced at Rp 295 a kg and granular urea at Rp 260 a kg.
House of Representatives members Syaiful M.D. and Oediyanto Hadisoedarmo said the government's decision to raise both types of fertilizers to the same price allowed farmers to choose which type of urea to use rather than rely on the cheaper, but supposedly less efficient granular kind.
Similarly, Soekartiwi said the new price could educate farmers to use fertilizer efficiently.
She said the higher price increase for granular urea (27 percent) compared to that of tablet urea (11 percent) would motivate farmers to use the tablet-form fertilizer.
The application of tablet urea, she said, although unfamiliar to most farmers, could actually increase planting efficiency by up to 40 percent.
"Farmers must be rational. But they must be given proper, intensive training," she said.
Legislator Oediyanto from the Armed Forces faction said the increase in fertilizer prices "was a relief" because it would eliminate speculation by traders, while House member Syaiful from the Golkar faction said the government should also improve the distribution system of fertilizer.
The North Sumatra branch of the Indonesian Farmers' Union welcomed the new fertilizer price, saying that the higher price would discourage traders from exporting the commodity.
News reports showed that farmers were faced with nationwide shortages of urea fertilizer, particularly the granular type, until early this year.
The government argued that the shortages were caused by an early planting season this year and the inability of fertilizer producers to meet the sudden increase in demand.
But several analysts blamed the lack of granular urea on distribution problems, while others said it was due to efforts to intensify the use of the new, tablet-form urea, which farmers consider harder to apply.
Export
Others suspected that better prices on the international market encouraged producers to export the commodity.
The government in February increased the floor prices of unhusked rice, following a two-year record high of the country's inflation rate in January, from Rp 400 a kg last year to Rp 450 a kg.
The increase in fertilizer prices has caused many analysts to doubt as to whether farmers could benefit from the increase in rice floor prices.
The government calculated that the new rice prices would increase the real income of the farmers by 5.33 percent.
Soekartiwi said farmers could not gain much from the new rice prices because the new fertilizer prices were immediately effective.
"It would be better if the urea prices were put into effect in October, when the rainy planting season begins," she said.
The next dry planting season is expected to start in April.
Nonetheless, Soekartiwi considered the higher fertilizer price in line with the government's intention to gradually cut down subsidies and protection, which is crucial for the upcoming free trade era in the ASEAN region. (pwn)