KALLA TO ENCOURAGE KUDs TO DISTRIBUTE SUBSIDIZED FERTILIZER

Palembang, June 17 (ANTARA) - Presidential aspirant Jusuf Kalla of Golkar Party has promised to encourage Village Unit Cooperatives (KUDs) and other cooperatives to help distribute subsidized fertilizer to farmers.

"We are going to revitalize KUDs and other cooperatives to help distribute subsidized fertilizer to farmers," Kalla said in a campaign dialog at Sriwijya Sport Stadium here on Wednesday.

Kalla made the statement after being asked by South Sumatra Farmers Cooperative chairman Asmawi about fertilizer supply if he was elected president in the upcoming July 8 race. Asmawi also asked Jusuf Kalla about subsidized fertilizer distribution to farmers if he became president.

In response to Asmawi's questions, Kalla said KUDs and other cooperatives would be revitalized to manage the fertilizer distribution system and overcome fertilizer scarcities as a consequence of a fertilizer production decline.

"We have experienced fertilizer production declines because most of our fertilizer plants are old. Of 7 million tons, they only produced 5.8 million tons and therefore we have fertilizer scarcities," Kalla said.

Kalla said his policy if he became president was to stop gas exports and supply the gas instead to fertilizer plants to produce more fertilizer for the farmers, and to revitalize or rejuvenate the old fertilizer plants.

In the dialog attended by more than 2,000 people, Kalla said Indonesia had the capability to become a big and developed nation if it had a leader who was strong, firm, and able to act faster.

"The faster, the better. If we are able to act faster, why do we have to act slowly?", Kalla asked.

Faster, according to him, was not unnecessarily dangerous, because Indonesia's slow moving trains even experienced frequent accidents compared to fast trains in Japan but without accident.

"Better late than never is the past slogan but now we have to act faster because the faster we act the better we become," Kalla said.