'Careless Whisper' on Fertilizer Subsidies

The government has signaled that it will remove or change the fertilizer subsidy scheme. In a national working meeting on agricultural development at the Merdeka Palace, Jakarta, on Monday (1/11), President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo questioned the benefits of trillions of rupiah from the state budget for fertilizer subsidies. He considered that fertilizer subsidies have no real impact on agricultural production.

"How many years have we subsidized fertilizer, around Rp 30 trillion each year, what is the return to us? Has production increased?" he asked. In the last decade, the country has poured hundreds of trillions of funds on fertilizer subsidies. However, if the subsidies are issued only for routine purposes, there will be no impact on agriculture. "This must be evaluated, this is something wrong," he said.