Soeharto tells district heads to boost field inspection

JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto told district heads yesterday to conduct site inspections to make sure that farmers are properly using urea tablet fertilizer to bolster the country's self sufficiency in rice.

"District heads have to serve the people, not the other way around," President Soeharto told 49 district heads from Java provinces who were summoned for a special meeting at his Bina Graha presidential office yesterday.

Soeharto said the campaign to promote the use of urea tablets had not yet achieved the desired results due to snags in the distribution of the tablet fertilizer.

"If (you) do not make farm visits, you will never know if there are some problems. Then it will be too late for you to take measures to overcome them," Soeharto told the 49 district heads -- 15 from West Java, 15 from Central Java, 15 from East Java and 4 from Yogyakarta.

A number of cabinet ministers and governors from provinces in Java were also at yesterday's meeting.

At the meeting, Soeharto voiced his concern with the implementation of the credit program for farmers. He asked the district heads to help facilitate the disbursement of bank loans so that farmers could buy urea tablets on time.

Urea tablets are best used when the rice seedlings are in the very early stages of growth, between seven days and 12 days old. "After that period, it will be useless," Soeharto said.

Commenting on the problem of bad loans, Soeharto said, "Actually farmers do not want to cheat. The problem is that they are so poor that they are often forced to use the bank loans for other purposes."

Soeharto then asked the district heads to properly plan the disbursement of bank loans to the farmers and the distribution of urea tablets in their respective districts prior to the 1995-1996 rice planting season.

"This is your homework. I have decided that the next rice planting season starts on Nov. 1 and the harvest time starts on Feb. 25, next year. I want you district heads to make adequate plans far ahead and then submit them to Bina Graha. I want to see the results," Soeharto told the district heads.

President Soeharto again urged rice farmers to shift to urea- fertilizer tablets from the traditional form of granular fertilizer.

The agriculture ministry's studies have proven that by using urea tablets, farmers can use up to 50 percent less fertilizer per area. Farmers usually need 250 kilograms of granular urea fertilizer per hectare of rice. However, they need only 125 kilograms to 187 kilograms of urea tablets per hectare.

Soeharto said the aim of urea tablets is to increase rice production, especially in Java, to regain the self sufficiency in rice Indonesia achieved in 1984.

Because of widespread floods early last year and a severe dry season afterwards, Indonesia's production dropped by 3.2 percent to 46.64 million tons of unhusked rice last year.

The lower output forced the government, through the National Logistics Agency, to import 900,000 tons of husked rice late last year and another 380,000 tons early this year.

Referring to Bulog which is in charge of managing the stocks of such essential food commodities as rice, sugar, wheatflour, soybean and cooking oil, the President said the agency would be maintained.

"I am aware of the criticisms of Bulog as a monopoly which is contrary to the free market mechanism.

"I hereby reaffirm that Bulog will be maintained because this agency is assigned to help stabilize the prices of farm commodities at fair levels and to secure adequate stocks of essential commodities," Soeharto said.

He added that Indonesia does not subscribe to a completely free market mechanism but a managed market system.(rid/vin)