Urea fertilizer debacle

Urea fertilizer debacle

The furor over the shortage of urea fertilizer over the last few months, reportedly caused in part by farmers' opposition to using urea in tablet form, is strange for two reasons.

Firstly, Indonesia's urea manufacturing capacity is almost 60 percent larger than its domestic needs. Secondly, Indonesia has gained more than 25 years of experiences in disseminating new technology to crop farmers, as demonstrated by its successes in achieving self-sufficiency in rice in 1984 and in developing an internationally recognized model of integrated pest management.

Some analysts blame the shortage on the much lower domestic prices of urea, compared to prices overseas, which prompted exports. But the inference is hard to understand because urea fertilizer is produced only by state-owned companies and the marketing and distribution of the agrochemical has always been monopolized by state-owned PT Pusri, which itself is the largest urea producer in the country. Moreover, urea export has always been controlled under a quota system which is set annually after taking into account the latest estimate of national demand.

It is also puzzling to note that the hearing between the urea producing companies and the House of Representatives last week failed to straighten out the issue of the questionable urea shortage. Why did the hearing stop short of questioning the manner in which the urea tablet technology was introduced?

The main cause of the problem more likely lies in the inadequate propagation of the new technology -- urea in tablet form -- among farmers who have used prilled urea over the past two decades.

We should, though, highly commend the agriculture ministry for its persistence in developing new technology such as high- yielding rice strains and the urea tablet.

Indeed, as easy gains from modern rice technology have been achieved and irrigated rice fields have steadily been encroached by industrial and housing development, there is now a smaller chance of raising output and farmers' incomes through intensification programs in Java, which accounts for over 80 percent of the national rice output.

The rice economy no longer provides the same dynamism to agricultural growth and rural earnings as in the 1970s and 1980s because gains in rice yields, generated by technical and management changes, have reached a plateau.

However, research conducted jointly by the agriculture ministry and two agencies of the Manila-based International Rice Research Institute, proves that the application of urea tablets enables farmers to economize on the use of fertilizer and at the same time raise the yield of their rice crops.

Pilot projects show that urea tablets are capable of raising the rice yield by as much as 16.50 percent and reducing the volume of urea usage by up to 30 percent. Translated into income, the double gains were estimated at almost Rp 400,000 (US$200) per hectare in 1994. If that is the case, what then is the snag?

The problem, as stated above, is inadequate propagation by agricultural extension workers. Even though the substance is the same -- urea-- the replacement of prilled urea with urea tablets requires massive extension service because urea tablets are 13.40 percent costlier than prilled urea and application requires a change in farmers' habits.

The application of urea tablets requires more labor as the tablets have to be planted between seedlings, instead of thrown over fields as is done with prilled urea. Urea tablets also require a tighter scheduling -- they must be applied within seven to 12 days after the planting of seedlings. Moreover, even though the production of urea tablets requires only a simple technology -- they can be made by machines similar to those used for making pills -- the process requires new logistical arrangements.

Why then was the government in such a rush to force farmers in Java to use urea tablets without giving them an option, at least during the transition period, to choose between urea tablets and prilled urea? A longer transition period should have been provided, especially because the urea tablet production, monopolized by PT Ariyo Seto -- a private company which has never before had any experience in handling agrochemicals -- adds new chains in the production and distribution processes.