Organic Fertilizer for An Agricultural Sustainability

PRESSCONFERENCE

ORGANIC FERTILIZER FOR AN AGRICULTURALSUSTAINABILITY

Location : Gresik

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

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

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

"Thisis a strategic step that we should jointly encourage, in terms of organicfertilizer quality improvement, as well as increasing farmers' awareness to applyorganic 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, itwas proved that only 13.5% of Indonesian farmers have applied organicfertilizers. The rest were still relying on inorganic fertilizers.

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

"Thismeans that farmers' awareness has started to grow, but it still needs to beimproved", said Ihwan.

Ihwanfurther stated that Petroganik organic fertilizer has gained government trust since2008 as subsidized fertilizers. This is due to the production process and maintainedquality, as well as meeting the government standards. By this reason, relatedto the renewal of Permentan, Ihwan mentioned that PG is ready to adjust the Petroganikorganic fertilizer based on the latest technical specification determined bythe government.

Petroganikorganic fertilizer, Ihwan continued, has been developed since 2004, as a responseto the results of Bogor Center for Land and Agro-climate Research (2003) whichstated that most of agricultural land in Indonesia contain organic-C levelsbelow 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 improvephysical, chemical and structural properties of soil. Therefore, the soil becomeshealthier and ready for agricultural cultivation process", Ihwan convinced.

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

"Organicfertilizers are applied to increase soil fertility, whereas inorganicfertilizers are mainly used to fulfil the nutrients needed by plants. So, both ofthese fertilizers are complementary", added Ihwan.

PG’s role inpromoting the organic fertilizers is carried out through campaigns bringing the5:3:2 balanced fertilizations, by applying 500kgs of Petroganik organicfertilizer, 300kgs of NPK Phonska fertilizers, and 200kgs of Urea fertilizerfor every one hectare of rice fields. PG still also has recommendations of balancedfertilization for other agricultural commodities.

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

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

Ihwan hopes thatthe application of organic fertilizer can get more support from variousparties, especially in terms of delivering correct information related to its benefitsand advantages in the fields of agricultural cultivation.

Variousefforts made by PG are forms of its corporate business transformation as afertilizer producer for agro-industry solution, to be known as a company not onlyoffering products, but also providing solutions for agricultural andagro-industry sectors.

"Weinvite various parties to jointly encourage the utilization of organicfertilizers and balanced fertilization to protect our environment, as well as preservingthe nature for a sustainable agriculture in Indonesia", Ihwan concluded.

PTPetrokimia Gresik Forfurther information contact:

PRManager: Muhmmad Ihwan F

Office:(031) 3981811

Ext.2152

Mobile: 0812 8877 5758

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

PublicRelations Manager ihwan.humas@gmail.com