"The issue of fertilizers has become very important because they are related to productivity, especially rice that we need. We are facing climate change, El Nino, global food crisis," he said after attending the " Subsidized Fertilizer Policy Transformation" workshop here on Thursday.
According to him, the Ministry of Agriculture will focus on handling several issues related to the implementation of the subsidized fertilizer program so that the program can run more massively, accurately, and can be made right on target.
Limpo explained that El Nino may affect the agriculture sector because of its impact on irrigation. "It is even part of climate change and El Nino, which leads to a global food crisis," he said.
He further said that so far, data from the Agriculture Ministry has shown that food security in Indonesia will be safe until December 2023.
"This month, I still harvest 850 thousand hectares, and next month, there is a backup of above 800 thousand hectares. Especially for El Nino, in accordance with the President's instruction, I prepared 500 hectares to boost (production) if there are impacts of productivity that, of course, will decline," he informed.
The minister expressed the hope that the workshop, which was organized in collaboration with the Indonesian Ombudsman and state-owned fertilizer holding firm PT Pupuk Indonesia, would improve the implementation of the subsidized fertilizer policy and make it better, faster, and more accurate.
"Of course, we hope we can find a more accurate system. That way, we would already know earlier how many people in each region must receive subsidized fertilizers," he explained.
He highlighted that not all farmers are eligible for the subsidized fertilizer as they need to meet certain criteria and several requirements to get the subsidy.
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Translator: M Fikri, Raka Adji
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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