ORGANIC FERTILIZER FOR AN AGRICULTURAL SUSTAINABILITY

PRESS CONFERENCE

ORGANIC FERTILIZER FOR AN AGRICULTURAL SUSTAINABILITY

Location : Gresik

Day/Date : Friday, March 15^th, 2019

PT Petrokimia Gresik (PG), a fertilizer producer subsidiary of PT Pupuk Indonesia (Persero), supports the Ministry of Agriculture efforts in terms of improving the quality of organic fertilizer and encouraging farmers to apply organic fertilizer in their agricultural cultivation.

This was once stated by PG Public Relations Manager, Muhammad Ihwan, he conveyed that PG encourages the renewal of Minister of Agriculture Regulation (Permentan) No. 70 Year of 2011 into Permentan No. 01 Year of 2019, concerning the Registration of Organic Fertilizers, Biological fertilizers, and Soil Improvement Fertilizers.

"This is a strategic step that we should jointly encourage, in terms of organic fertilizer quality improvement, as well as increasing farmers' awareness to apply organic fertilizer more often, for the sake of long term agricultural sustainability", said Ihwan at Gresik, Friday (3/14).

Previously, based on the agricultural census by Central Statistics Agency (BPS) in 2013, it was proved that only 13.5% of Indonesian farmers have applied organic fertilizers. The rest were still relying on inorganic fertilizers.

Meanwhile, Director of Fertilizers and Pesticides, Ministry of Agriculture, Muhrizal Sarwani, in a press statement couple days ago, stated that the application of organic fertilizers by farmers continued to increase. This could be seen from data of Petroganik organic fertilizer absorption, which was realized at 700 thousand tons per year during the last three years (2016-2018).

"This means that farmers' awareness has started to grow, but it still needs to be improved", said Ihwan.

Ihwan further stated that Petroganik organic fertilizer has gained government trust since 2008 as subsidized fertilizers. This is due to the production process and maintained quality, as well as meeting the government standards. By this reason, related to the renewal of Permentan, Ihwan mentioned that PG is ready to adjust the Petroganik organic fertilizer based on the latest technical specification determined by the government.

Petroganik organic fertilizer, Ihwan continued, has been developed since 2004, as a response to the results of Bogor Center for Land and Agro-climate Research (2003) which stated that most of agricultural land in Indonesia contain organic-C levels below 2%. While healthy land should contain at least 5% of organic-C levels.

"Meanwhile, Petroganik contains 12.5% of ​​organic-C levels, so it is way capable to improve physical, chemical and structural properties of soil. Therefore, the soil becomes healthier and ready for agricultural cultivation process", Ihwan convinced.

Ihwan added that if the soil is healthy, the use of inorganic fertilizers will be more efficient. The organic fertilizers application is also an effort to preserve the environment. By this reason, he highly recommends a balanced fertilization, which is a combinative application between organic and inorganic fertilizers.

"Organic fertilizers are applied to increase soil fertility, whereas inorganic fertilizers are mainly used to fulfil the nutrients needed by plants. So, both of these fertilizers are complementary", added Ihwan.

PG’s role in promoting the organic fertilizers is carried out through campaigns bringing the 5:3:2 balanced fertilizations, by applying 500kgs of Petroganik organic fertilizer, 300kgs of NPK Phonska fertilizers, and 200kgs of Urea fertilizer for every one hectare of rice fields. PG still also has recommendations of balanced fertilization for other agricultural commodities.

This balanced fertilization scheme is delivered in every extension programme, which in the year of 2018, PG has conducted 448 demonstration plots (demplot) of various food commodities and more than 1,000 of socialization activities throughout Indonesia. PG also has 4 units of Soil Test Cars to help farmers in testing the soil fertility, so that fertilization recommendations are given appropriately. These cars operate in 5 provinces of national food centres, such as Central Java, East Java, Yogyakarta, Bali and West Nusa Tenggara (NTB).

"We have tested the effectiveness of balanced fertilization scheme in various regions during the last 10 years in approximate, and it was proven able to increase the crops productivity. For rice, its productivity increased up to 1-2 tons per hectare", Ihwan explained.

Ihwan hopes that the application of organic fertilizer can get more support from various parties, especially in terms of delivering correct information related to its benefits and advantages in the fields of agricultural cultivation.

Various efforts made by PG are forms of its corporate business transformation as a fertilizer producer for agro-industry solution, to be known as a company not only offering products, but also providing solutions for agricultural and agro-industry sectors.

"We invite various parties to jointly encourage the utilization of organic fertilizers and balanced fertilization to protect our environment, as well as preserving the nature for a sustainable agriculture in Indonesia", Ihwan concluded.

PT Petrokimia Gresik For further information contact:

PR Manager: Muhmmad Ihwan F

Office: (031) 3981811

Ext. 2152

Mobile: 0812 8877 5758

Muhammad Ihwan F Email:mihwan@petrokimia-gresik.com

Public Relations Manager ihwan.humas@gmail.com