Agricultural Land Continues To Reduce, This Is How To Pupuk Indonesia Helps Increase Production

President Director of PT Pupuk Indonesia (Persero), Rahmad Pribadi (photo: mery handayani/voi.id)

President Director of PT Pupuk Indonesia (Persero), Rahmad Pribadi, said that Indonesia's agricultural sector faced many challenges. Starting from reduced agricultural land, reduced soil quality, to lower productivity.

For this reason, PT Pupuk Indonesia (Persero) held Jambore Makmur in the Pupuk Kujang Area, Cikampek. This program aims to make it easier for thousands of farmers and stakeholders to share knowledge and experiences in agricultural cultivation.

"It all becomes a problem that cannot be solved by just one organization, this must be resolved by collaborative means and Pupuk Indonesia is a company that focuses on agroinput, so we through innovation and agricultural cultivation, especially fertilizer production, we will continue to support the Government's efforts to achieve food security," he said at the Jambore Makmur event in the Pupuk Kujang Area, Cikampek, Saturday, November 11.

Through Jambore Makmur, continued Rahmad, Pupuk Indonesia presents stakeholders who have been involved in the success of the Makmur Program, ranging from banks, technical assistants, providers of agricultural production facilities, to offtakers and agricultural insurance providers.

"This activity is a manifestation of the attention of the Minister of SOEs, he always says that if Indonesia wants to prosper, then farmers must prosper. Then assigned to us and coincidentally there is a program, called the Makmur program," he said.

Attract Students To Become Farmers' Companies

On this occasion, Pupuk Indonesia also launched Taruna Makmur. Rahmad said the cadets of Makmur are students who will provide assistance in the field in the Makmur program.

Rahmad said these students came from Agricultural Development Polytechnics (Polbangtan) from five regions throughout Indonesia, namely Polbangtan Bogor, Yogyakarta, Malang, Medan, and Gowa.

Later, the Makmur cadets will provide cultivation assistance and provide agrinomic services for farmers who join the Makmur Program. The number of cadets who have been inaugurated is 76 people and the number will continue to be increased to reach at least 500 cadets spread across various regions in Indonesia.

Because of that everywhere Pupuk Indonesia voiced prosperity, because our job is to cultivate fertility in spreading prosperity. Through Makmur, it is also proven that even though farmers use non-subsidized fertilizers, their income and profits increase so that they increase their income," said Rahmad.

The Prosperous Program itself was initiated and launched in 2021 by the Minister of SOEs, Erick Thohir. This program is an agricultural ecosystem that connects and facilitates farmers' access to agricultural technology, capital, insurance, ease of access to farmers to fertilizers and agricultural facilities which leads to increased productivity and increased welfare of farmers.

The Makmur program was initially initiated by PT Pupuk Kaltim, which is a subsidiary of Pupuk Indonesia. After being successfully implemented, this program was adopted by Pupuk Indonesia and became the Pupuk Indonesia Group program. The implementation of this program that provides many benefits is considered successful and was subsequently adopted by the Ministry of SOEs two years ago.

Rahmad explained that the performance of the Makmur program until October 2023, had been realized on an area of 306,775 hectares with 90,632 farmers. Of all participants of the Makmur program, there was an increase in productivity of several agricultural plants such as rice by 14 percent or to 6.5 tons per hectare from the previous 5.7 tons per hectare.

Rahmad revealed that Jambore Makmur's activities became Pupuk Indonesia's effort to regenerate national farmers. Through Jambore Makmur's activities, Pupuk Indonesia aims to change the perception of the agricultural sector into an attractive and promising sector.

"We would like to thank all stakeholders who have helped make the Makmur program a success, starting from the Ministry of SOEs, Ministry of Agriculture, Regional Government, banking directors, insurance companies, offtakers, providers of agricultural facilities, agricultural instructors, agronomics, and other parties who have succeeded in Makmur," concluded Rahmad.