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Greetings From KAPEX Alumni 

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Healthy Greetings from Bogor, Indonesia
1115

Irawan
Senior Researcher
Indonesian Soil Research Institute



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Photo 1: Above: Fertilizer Team of IAARD and KREI Tim at ISRI, Bogor (2019); Below: Dr. Kang and me at Pupuk Kujang office, Cikampek, West Java, Indonesia (2019).






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Photo 2: Grandson’s impression to photo of me taken at Naju Theme Park, 2019





































It's nice to greet you back through this Newsletter after a year has passed. August is a special month for South Korea and Indonesia, as well. Our countries were independent in August, and South Korea is several days older than Indonesia. To the people of South Korea, I wish you a happy celebration of Independence Day.

I am an alumnus of the Kapex Training Program which was held in July-August 2019. I and two researchers from the Indonesian Soil Research Institute (ISRI) participated in the training together with colleagues from Myanmar (3 people) and the Philippines (5 people). I wish all Kapex training colleagues healthy, happy and successful in their respective careers. I also convey the same hope for the organizers and resource persons, both in the KREI and other offices.

My participation in the "2019 Kapex Training Program" was inseparable from my status as a member of the IAARD Fertilizer Team. Before leaving for training program, I had joined the ISRI - KREI Cooperation Team (Photo 1). I accompanied the KREI team when they visited Indonesia.

I really feel lucky and happy to be able to join the “2019 Kapex Training Program”. Not only the added knowledge conveyed by the speakers, but also being able to visit more cities and places that can provide new experiences, knowledge, and memories. One time I was invited by Dr. Kang to go to Naju Image Theme and I took a photo there (Photo 2). My grandson (6,5 years old) was very impressed with this photo of me. He thought I could become a king. He asked me several times to show the king’s uniform. He felt sure that I had it stored somewhere in the house. Actually, we live in a different city about 300 km away and see each other every 4-6 months.

South Korea's knowledge and experience in reducing the use of inorganic fertilizers and eliminating these fertilizer subsidies is an interesting aspect. I also want Indonesia to learn from South Korea about it. Fertilizer subsidies in Indonesia reach 7-9 million tons per year. Types of subsidized fertilizers (2019) include urea (3.8 million tons), NPK (2.3 million tons), ZA (1 million tons), SP36 (0.8 million tons), and granule organic fertilizers (0.9 million tons) with a value of around US $ 1.5 billion. The fertilizer subsidy targets are food crop, plantation, and horticultural farmers with a maximum cultivated land area of 2 ha per farmer.

There have been thoughts to reduce fertilizer subsidies, both at the academics and researchers but it always ran aground by concerns about a decline in food production, especially rice. In the last three years, there has been a decrease in the amount of fertilizer subsidies by about 0.6 - 0.8 million tons / year as a result of the reduction in agricultural land area, particularly rice fields due to agricultural land conversion; not out of necessity. On several occasions at the forum for the fertilizer team of the IAARD, I stated that Indonesia needs to learn from the experience of South Korea. The decrease in the use of inorganic fertilizers accompanied by the increase in the use of organic fertilizers did not decrease the productivity of rice. On the other hand, rice productivity in South Korea increased in line with the decrease in the use of inorganic fertilizers. This phenomenon also occurs in Indonesia, namely in organic rice farming. The productivity of organic rice generally increases after several planting seasons without using inorganic fertilizers.  Organic rice farming only relies on crumb organic fertilizers at a dose of around 2-5 t /ha/planting season.

The problem of fertilizer subsidies in Indonesia is not simple. The reduction in fertilizer subsidies which may result in a decrease in the production of foodstuffs (rice) will be very dangerous for national food security and the credibility or sustainability of the Government. On the other hand, the perception of rice farmers towards the use of inorganic fertilizers is very high so that the use of these fertilizers is excessive or far exceeds the recommended dosage. Based on several sources of information, farmers around the north coast of Java use inorganic fertilizers up to 800-1000 kg/ha/planting season with little or no organic fertilizer. The area of rice fields in Java is around 3.2 million hectares and about 50-70% are intensive rice fields which fertilized with high to very high doses. Large-scale development research is needed to convince farmers that the excessive use of inorganic fertilizers is bad for the agricultural environment and is inefficient. On the other hand, there are local resources that can be used for the manufacture of organic fertilizers which can improve soil health and rice productivity. At the small-scale research level, there is a lot of evidence that the use of balanced fertilizers with inorganic fertilizer doses of less than 50% of the farmer's dose can increase the efficiency of fertilizer use, without significantly reducing rice productivity.

Currently, as in other parts of the world, Indonesia's economy and agricultural sector cannot be separated from the impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic.  Two cases of Covid-19 in Indonesia were reported on March 2, 2020 and increased to 1,528 people on March 31, 2020. The death rate due to Covid-19 at that time was 8.90%. It was classified as high and scary. I also lost a colleague and close neighbor who died from Covid-19 two months ago. On August 9, 2020 the number of Covid-19 cases reached 125,396 people with a death rate of around 4.56%. The number of new Covid-19 cases is still high, around 2,000 people/day. Five of the 33 provinces with the highest number of Covid-19 cases were DKI Jakarta (25.7K), East Java (25.3K); Central Java (10.6 K); South Sulawesi (10.5K) and West Java (7.6K).

We, the Indonesian people, will continue to strive to control the Covid19 outbreak by strictly implementing health protocols and finding a cure and vaccine. On the other hand, we also manage the impact of the Covid19 pandemic, including in the agricultural sector.

The Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) prioritized basic needs as a public supply and protects the economy in the agricultural sector so that it does not weaken during the process of controlling the spread of Covid19 in Indonesia. The MOA Policies are as follows: (1) Refocusing activities and budgets in anticipation of the impact of the Covid19 virus pandemic, (2) Accelerate labor-intensive programs, and (3) Maintain the availability of basic foodstuffs.

Ministry of agriculture has refocused the budget of IDR 1.85 trillion (eq. US$ 1.7 million). The use of the refocusing budget was to: (i) support the prevention of Covid-19 transmission (2.43%), in the form of preparing medical facilities and equipment, purchasing supplements to increase endurance, and sterilizing buildings within the Ministry of Agriculture; (ii) support security of food availability (11.08%), among others for the operation of the foodstuff market, assistance for the absorption of rice, transportation and distribution of foodstuffs, and stabilization of the supply of staple foodstuffs; and (iii) a social safety net including labor-intensive programs (84.49%).

Various labor-intensive activities include massive pest control, soil tillage and acceleration of planting period, rehabilitation of the farm level irrigation network, optimization of upland and swamps, irrigation and pumping, anticipation of drought, farmer field schools, absorption of agricultural labor, and fostering agricultural mikro, small and medium enterprises.

The 3rd program included assistance for food crop seeds, horticulture and plantations, direct food assistance and strengthening of sustainable food home areas, chicken/goat/sheep livestock assistance to deal with the impact of the spread of Covid-19. Other activities included food market operations, assistance for the absorption of husky rice, transportation and distribution of foodstuffs, stabilization of the supply and price of staple foods, establish and development of farmer shops in each province.

So far, the agricultural sector is the highest contributor to national GDP. Agricultural GDP grew 16.24% in the second quarter of 2020 (q to q), and it continued to grow positively 2.19% (y on y). Meanwhile, the national economic growth (y on y) has been negative 5.32%. This is proof that the agricultural sector saves the national economy. It always happens when there is an economic recession.



(Irawan, ISRI-AARD-MoA, Bogor, Indonesia).



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