JAKARTA – PT Pupuk Indonesia (Persero) will expand the integration trial of the subsidized fertilizer redemption system through the iPubers application (subsidized fertilizer integration). This expansion will be carried out in three provinces, namely North Sumatra (Sumut), Central Sulawesi (Central Sulawesi), and Southeast Sulawesi (Sultra). That way, all kiosks in the three provinces will provide digital redemption of subsidized fertilizer.

Ahead of the trial preparation period, a system transition will be carried out from 7 to 13 September 2023. During this period, farmers will temporarily not be able to redeem subsidized fertilizer at all official kiosks in North Sumatra, Central Sulawesi and Southeast Sulawesi from 7-13 September 2023. Farmers in these three provinces can still redeem subsidized fertilizer on September 6 2023, until 23:59 local time.

Pupuk Indonesia Marketing Director, Gusrizal stated that the implementation of iPubers was a collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture (Kementan) as a follow-up to President Joko Widodo's (Jokowi) instructions regarding improving the governance of subsidized fertilizer policies, especially improving agricultural data.

"We continue to improve the digital distribution and redemption system for subsidized fertilizer with the aim of being right on target, transparent and accountable. "So we apologize to farmers in North Sumatra, Central Sulawesi and Southeast Sulawesi because there is a system transition between 7-13 September 2023, during which period farmers will temporarily not be able to redeem subsidized fertilizer," said Gusrizal.

iPubers is an integration system between the Ministry of Agriculture's e-Allocation application and Pupuk Indonesia's Pekan application. This application will be a new means for kiosks to input data on subsidized fertilizer distribution in real time. As well as making it easier for farmers to redeem subsidized fertilizer.

The iPubers trial in these three provinces will start on September 16 2023. There are several stages that will be carried out, namely the system transition period on September 7-13 2023. After that, on September 13-15 an internal trial of the iPubers system will be carried out. , to ensure that the digital fertilizer redemption system with iPubers can start operating (Go Live) simultaneously in North Sumatra, Central Sulawesi and Southeast Sulawesi on September 16 2023.

Regarding system changes, Pupuk Indonesia has carried out outreach to marketing personnel, distributors and kiosks in Central Sulawesi and Southeast Sulawesi on 25-31 August 2023. Meanwhile, outreach in North Sumatra has been carried out from 1-5 September 2023.

“Pupuk Indonesia has carried out outreach in three provinces where iPubers is expanding. When Go Live, farmers in North Sumatra, Central Sulawesi and Southeast Sulawesi, especially those registered in e-Allocation, can start redeeming subsidized fertilizer digitally. "This system will further simplify and facilitate the process of redeeming subsidized fertilizer, both by farmers and kiosks," he added.

With the implementation of the iPubers trial, the procedures for redeeming subsidized fertilizer at kiosks will be digitalized. Here, farmers must come to the kiosk themselves and cannot be represented. Farmers who have died can be redeemed by their heirs by showing proof of death certificate.

The way to redeem subsidized fertilizer with iPubers is that farmers simply come with their Citizenship Card (Kartu Tanda Penduduk) to have their Citizen Number (Nomor Induk Kewarganegaraan)  scanned to access farmer data in the e-allocation system. Next, the kiosk will input the amount of the redemption transaction and the farmer signs proof of the transaction on iPubers.

At the time of the transaction, the Citizenship Card of the farmer and also the farmer along with the subsidized fertilizer that was redeemed will be photographed by the kiosk on the iPubers application. Input photos will be equipped with geo-tagging and timestamp. So that it can record the location and time of the transaction and facilitate tracing. If the Citizenship Card does not match, the farmer must complete it with a Certificate from the village or sub-district government.

Previously, Pupuk Indonesia had implemented digital redemption of subsidized fertilizer in five provinces, namely Bali, Aceh, Bangka Belitung, Riau and South Kalimantan. That way, in the future there will be eight provinces that will implement digital redemption at kiosks with the addition of North Sumatra, Central Sulawesi and Southeast Sulawesi.