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.