Jakarta. The simplified rules have enabled farmers across the country, including South Sumatra, to get their subsidized fertilizers, according to the state-run fertilizer maker Pupuk Indonesia.

The subsidized fertilizer has already made its way to Indonesian farmers since the beginning of the year. This distribution is expected to help Indonesia become more self-sufficient in its food production by 2027.

"The national fertilizer supply current stands at 1.5 million tons. We also have enough fertilizers for South Sumatra," Pupuk Indonesia's president director Rahmad Pribadi was quoted as saying in a statement on Monday.

The supply is as follows: there is approximately 980,000 tons of the so-called NPK fertilizers. Pupuk Indonesia has also prepared 607 million tons of urea fertilizers. South Sumatra also has 24,590 tons of subsidized fertilizers, about 9,111 tons of which are urea fertilizers. The rest are 15,460 tons of NPK Phonska fertilizer, 4 tons of NPK cacao fertilizers, and 15 tons of organic fertilizers.

South Sumatra is also home to the Pupuk Sriwidjaja Palembang or Pusri facility, according to Rahmad. This facility should enable Pupuk to channel more fertilizers into the province if necessary. Pupuk Indonesia also makes daily checks on its warehouses, including those located in the regencies or cities.

As of Jan. 10, about 165,688 tons of the subsidized fertilizers already reached the farmers' hands. This is equivalent to 1.73 percent of the government's target of 9.55 million tons. In South Sumatra alone, the distributed volume already reached 6,052 tons for all types of subsidized fertilizers. This is about 2.1 percent of what the government had set for the province.

"In 2024, South Sumatran farmers received a total of 262,199 tons of subsidized fertilizers. The government decides to allocate more subsidies and raise it to 294,079 tons," Rahmad said.

Deputy Agricultural Minister said that the government had already simplified the distribution mechanism so the fertilizers were already available in local kiosks on Jan. 1.

"So, not only do we increase the allocated subsidized fertilizers to 9.5 million tons, we have also simplified the distribution. The administration process also takes less time," Sudaryono said.

Any farmers who have yet to register on the farmer group digital platform e-RDKK needs to sign up as soon as possible via their respective farmer groups. This way, their data will be available on the so-called agricultural support management system or Simluhtan.