Mainstream international and domestic laws and policy often override customary laws. Furthermore, resources and knowledge from communities are being privatised often without consent or consultation and rules and regulations not conventionally associated with food and farming (such as trade and patent laws) now have a great influence on agriculture.
The impact of laws includes changing the legal status of commonly held natural resources, outlawing basic farm activities such as seed-saving, legalising the introduction of untested technologies like genetically modified crops, and providing greater protection to industrial agriculture breeders at the cost of farmers. For many, current laws contribute to the problem of injustice and inequity rather than the solution.
Agri laws in Indonesia (.pdf downloads)
Seeds - the contamination issues
Agrobiodiversity - the knowledge issues
Agrisearch - farmers’ experiments and experiences
Law No. 29 of 2000 of the Republic of Indonesia - on Plant Protection
This is leading to the politicising of peasants.
Rice is Life, Culture and Dignity was the message emanating from the Final Declaration of the Asia Pacific People Conference on Rice and Food Sovereignty held in Jakarta, 14-18 May 2006.
We, the peasants from Asia and the Pacific strongly voice our right to have a better life, to preserve our cultures, and to protect the dignity of the people. Rice has been our staple food for centuries, so it is a political issue. Therefore, we demand food sovereignty for the people. Farmers should have the right to produce food in a sustainable way and be protected from neo-liberal policies. Food sovereignty should prevail over free trade.
This series of posts has had as its main theme the business of rice production in Indonesia, a land of great bio-diversity and environments with multifarious cultures that have developed because of these factors.
For millennia, farmers have been able to support their families and communities by living in harmony with their environment, an environment their forefathers may have created.
Evidence of wild rice on the island of Sulawesi dates from 3000BC. Evidence for the earliest cultivation, however, comes from eighth century stone inscriptions from the central island of Java, which show kings levied taxes in rice. Divisions of labour between men, women, and animals that are still in place in Indonesian rice cultivation, can be seen carved into the ninth-century Prambanan temples in Central Java. In the sixteenth century, Europeans visiting the Indonesian islands saw rice as a new prestige food served to the aristocracy during ceremonies and feasts.Rice production in Indonesian history is linked to the development of iron tools and the domestication of water buffalo for cultivation of fields and manure for fertilizer. Once covered in dense forest, much of the Indonesian landscape has been gradually cleared for permanent fields and settlements as rice cultivation developed over the last fifteen hundred years.
There is no one rice plant to fit all fields, soils, climates or, indeed, tastes. For time immemorial, since land was first settled and man became agrarian, crops have been crossbred, much like homo sapiens and all other sentient beings, in order to survive and thrive in various environments.
Rice is one of the few plants that can be grown in water-logged soil, an advantage when developing the agricultural use of river deltas and hillside terraces. However, with rapidly depleting fresh water resources, more efficient crop growing techniques are needed.
The genesis of this series of posts was a study in India, but applicable here in Indonesia, which has demonstrated over a 20 year period that it is possible to increase yields by over 30% - four to five tonnes per hectare instead of three tonnes per hectare, while using 40% less water than conventional methods.
Similarly, in Australia, a continent prone to drought, in the past ten years Australian rice farmers have improved water use efficiency by 60% - this means they now grow more rice and use much less water.
Intercropping and organic farming, crop rotation, the use of compost and manure and the planting of crops appropriate to the environment, are all further arguments against the use of costly and ultimately ineffective fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides produced on an industrial scale for use with specific hybrid and sterile seeds.
Thinking globally can be good if it demonstrates the inter-connectedness and inter-dependency of our lives, particularly if we subscribe to the Gaia Theory. Acting locally, however, is the best way for us all to live in harmony with our diversity.
Read how a multi-religious community in the small sub-district of Cigugur, West Java, gives thanks for the rice harvest and celebrates its diversity.
The sub-district only has a population of about 1200 but it is quite well known in Indonesia due to its plural religious nature. Not only do Muslims, Christians, Hindus and animists all live together there, they often exist within the one family.
Children are brought up both to respect God and/or the spirit world, and to value other people’s beliefs. The Serentaun festival is an embodiment of this philosophy, where people from different places with varied religious beliefs peacefully celebrate all that life has to offer.
Want to know more?
Further Reading
GRAIN is an international non-governmental organisation which promotes the sustainable management and use of agricultural biodiversity based on people's control over genetic resources and local knowledge.
- Hybrid Rice Blog
Seed Quest - Global Information Services for Seed Professionals
No Patents On Seeds
Nyéléni 2007 - Forum for Food Sovereignty
Food Sovereignty is the RIGHT of peoples, communities, and countries to define their own agricultural, labour, fishing, food and land policies which are ecologically, socially, economically and culturally appropriate to their unique circumstances. It includes the true right to food and to produce food, which means that all people have the right to safe, nutritious and culturally appropriate food and to food-producing resources and the ability to sustain themselves and their societies.
Jakarta Declaration for Food Sovereignty: Asserting Our Rights, Reclaiming Our Land and Culture
From February 23 to 27 2007 the International Forum on Food Sovereignty was held in Sélingué, Mali. Final Declaration (.pdf)
Down to Earth - International Campaign for Ecological Justice in Indonesia - is a project based in the UK, monitors and campaigns on the social and human implications of environmental issues in Indonesia. We aim to support civil society groups and provide an international voice at the levels of national governments, foreign companies, aid agencies and international funding institutions. Email for quarterly newsletters.
La Via Campesina is an international movement, with its secretariat in Jakarta, which brings together millions of peasants, small producers, landless people, rural women and agricultural workers and rural youth from around the world. It is made up of 132 member organisations active in 56 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas.
SA Grassroots Action (SAGA) is a regional network committed to contribute to the reduction by half of the Asian people living in poverty by 2015 and improve their quality of life in support to the Millennium Development Goals.
Institute of Science in Society - science, society, sustainablity
International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) is a non-profit organization devoted to maximizing productivity in rice farming while minimizing environmental harm. This site includes an informative article on the importance of biodiversity and taxonomy of wild rice species.
- IRRI News
Asian Farmers Association for Sustainable Rural Development
- Indonesian stories
International Year of Rice - 2004
The success of IYR 2004 has given new impetus to efforts to develop sustainable rice-based systems that will reduce hunger and poverty, and contribute to environmental conservation and a better life for present and future generations. The site includes several brief Rice Fact Sheets (.pdf) on different aspects of rice cultivation and a basic FAQ page for kids .
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BTW International Year of the Potato 2008 was launched last week.
When the chips are down will it be Spuds-U-Like or Spuds-'They'-Like?
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