Scarcity Of Subsidized Fertilizers, Moeldoko Asks To Accelerate Farmers' Direct Assistance

Presidential Chief of Staff Moeldoko (Special)

JAKARTA - The availability of fertilizers, especially subsidized fertilizers, is an issue that always arises when Moeldoko goes around meeting farmers in the regions. The Presidential Chief of Staff also collects ministries/agencies to accelerate the implementation of subsidized fertilizer policy reform into Farmers' Direct Assistance (BLP). As is known, President Joko Widodo mandated the change in the fertilizer subsidy scheme to Direct Farmer Assistance (BLP). The assistance will later be transferred directly to farmers through the farmer's banking account or digital wallet. In a coordination meeting attended by representatives from the Cabinet Secretariat, TNP2K, Coordinating Ministry for the Economy, Ministry of Agriculture, Bappenas, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of SOEs, BPS, and Pupuk Indonesia.

Moeldoko emphasized that the acceleration of BLP distribution must be accompanied by verification and synchronization of data on beneficiaries of fertilizer subsidies, so that they are really right on target.

So far, it is not clear that the subsidy has been given to the owner or cultivator, "he said, while chairing a coordination meeting, at the Bina Graha building in Jakarta, Thursday, September 21. Moeldoko said that data accuracy is needed as a basis for determining the criteria for the target group or beneficiaries. It is currently agreed that BLP is intended for small farmers. However, there is no clarity about the definition of the small farmer.

"Are cultivators, laborers, or cultivators as well as land owners," he said. According to him, synchronization and data verification are also the basis for determining the amount of assistance. So it can be determined whether the amount of assistance is based on land area or other elements. I hope that before this BLP is tested, the data must be clear. For this reason, we form a task force (task unit) that focuses on managing data from various ministries, exclaimed Moeldoko who is also the Chairman of the Indonesian Farmers Harmony Association (HKTI). It is not easy, because one ministry data with another ministry must be different. But this can be compromised, "he said. For information, the results of monitoring and evaluation of the Presidential Staff Office, the allocation of subsidized fertilizer budget experienced an increasing trend during 2024 to 2023, from IDR 1.35 trillion to IDR 25.3 trillion.

However, this increase was not accompanied by the realization of subsidized fertilizer distribution. During the 2020 to 2022 period, the trend continued to decline, from 8.6 million tons, down to 7.4 million tons. This is one of the causes of stagnant productivity (padi) between 5.1 tons/hectare to 5.2 tons/hectare during 2012-2022. "With BLP, we hope that our productivity will increase again, because the purpose of changing this fertilizer subsidy scheme helps the purchasing power of small farmers to obtain fertilizers," concluded Moeldoko.