Jakarta (ANTARA) - Coordinating Minister of Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto called for the simplification of subsidized fertilizer distribution mobile application iPubers to ensure it is more accessible to farmers.

The coordinating minister highlighted difficulties in signing one’s name consistent with the one registered in the mobile application while collecting the fertilizer as one issue the government seeks to address.

“As it is not easy to sign our name in the EDC (electronic data capture) machine, we will simplify the regulations,” Hartarto stated at a fertilizer trade expo in Bekasi District, West Java, Sunday.

The iPubers application, a joint effort by the Ministry of Agriculture and state-owned fertilizer producer PT Pupuk Indonesia (Persero), facilitates the distribution of subsidized fertilizer and improves efficiency in stock monitoring and allocation.

The coordinating minister said that he has asked his deputy of Food and Agribusiness Coordination, Dida Gardera, to inform the Agriculture Ministry about the matter.

Besides easing the regulation on personal signature, the government will also allow farmers to use their ID card as a substitute for their Farmers’ Card to identify themselves while obtaining their subsidized fertilizer ration.

Hartarto said the relaxation in using ID cards is to respond to farmers who complained that they forgot their Farmers’ Card PIN.

“There has been a request from farmers to use their ID card (to obtain the fertilizer), and the government accepted the request,” he said.

He also noted that subsidized fertilizer recipients are allowed to delegate someone else to collect their fertilizer on their behalf, provided that a power of attorney is provided by the actual recipient.

“In principle, we seek to ease (the distribution of subsidized fertilizer),” Hartarto remarked.


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Translator: Uyu Liman, Nabil Ihsan
Editor: Tia Mutiasari
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