Rice is not a water plant - Part 3

My first post in this thread had been germinating for a few days. It seemed important to applaud a major breakthrough in agriculture which would not only increase rice yields by over 30% but also require 40% less water. Given the current re-emphasis on Indonesia once again becoming self-sufficient in rice production, here seemed to be a radical solution.

Other obvious benefits would accrue. If this system of rice intensification (SRI) is adopted on the northern coastal plain to the east of Jakarta, it would obviously go some way to alleviating the dire water shortage in the capital city, something I've written about before .

The environmental benefits of SRI seem to outweigh other considerations. The use of organic compost and manure would obviously enrich the soil, whereas imbalances are created through the use of chemical pesticides, herbicides and fertilisers which tend to leech into the water table. Furthermore, SRI fields do not emit methane, a major contributor to global warming and, some say, potentially the cause of pestilence, floods, plagues and even worse.

The concentration of methane, which is second only to carbon dioxide in contributing to the greenhouse effect, in the atmosphere has almost tripled in the last 150 years, mainly through human-influenced so-called biogenic sources such as the rise in rice cultivation or numbers of flatulent ruminating animals. According to previous estimates, these sources make up two-thirds of the 600m tonnes worldwide annual methane production.

SRI appears to be a proven way for Indonesia to tackle some of its urgent problems, with nothing but positive indicators: increased production of its staple food, an increase in the supply of potable water, and a major contribution in the fight to stem global warming.

I was encouraged that I could be positive about my blogging. But then reality bit with the realisation that Indonesia's political and business élite wouldn't want this system to take hold because there are few, if any, financial benefits for them.

In much the same way that cigarette companies have been driven out of the so-called 'developed' world into Asian and African countries, generally with authoritarian and venal régimes and known as the 'developing' world, so too the agri-chemical/pharmaceutical industrial complex has gravitated eastwards.

Apart from Bayer (German), Monsanto and DuPont (USA), other players in this 'free' market include Syngenta (Switzerland), Vilmorin (France). However, of perhaps greater concerrn to Indonesian rice farmers and consumers is the greatly increased role being played by mainland China in the business affairs of tthe country, with the happy connivance of local business tycoons.

On October 17th, Vice President Jusuf Kalla inaugurated a 30-hectare hybrid rice research centre run by PT Sumber Alam Sutra (SAS) in Lampung, South Sumatra. According to the Jakarta Post, he said that with shrinking farmland, Indonesia had to promote the use of hybrid rice, intensify farming technology and multiply harvests to allow the country to double rice production levels from 5 to 10 million tons a year within the next two years.

He further said that the use of hybrid rice varieties stood to benefit farmers and the country by alleviating rice imports.

How will this benefit farmers? Firstly, they will have to buy the seeds from PT SAS which has a partnership program with farmers using a soft-loan scheme from private and state banks. In other words, farmers are locked in to a debt recycling programme, dependent on PT SAS supplying seeds and purchasing the harvests. It is, of course, possible that the harvests will be great, but one is allowed to ask if the farmers will get a fair price, especially when it is in the government's interest to operate a fixed price policy.

What I find intriguing about yesterday's 'event' is that pictured giving a "brief" on hybrid rice to VP Kalla is Tomy Winata (TW). I somehow doubt that this was necessary as on August 30th 2005 JK witnessed the signing of the MoU between PT SAS and Sichuan Guohao Zhong Ye. PT SAS is one of 18 private companies developing hybrid rice varieties in Indonesia generally from seeds supplied from Chinese-developed hybrid rice varieties, the subject of a separate post.

JK was in China again this year, on Saturday, June 9th, when at a ceremony in Chengdu, China, witnessed by visiting Vice President Jusuf Kalla and the Minister of Agriculture Anton Apriyantono along with other Indonesian officials and representatives of local governments in China, an agreement was signed between the Artha Graha group, through PT Penta Prima Pusaka, along with the Sichuan Guohao Seeds Industry (SGSI) of China.

They agreed to establish the Integrated Hybrid Seed Center in China, which will develop various new varieties of hybrid seeds. The center is scheduled to be operational by next year and will be officiated in 2009.

Furthermore, PT Guohao Penta Prima, the joint venture between Artha Graha and SGSI, has also forged an agreement with the Indonesia Center for Rice Research, a government agency, to develop hybrid rice seeds and exchange germ plasma and other expertise.

The Artha Graha group is controlled by Tomy Winata who is is one of Indonesia's most successful, powerful and well-connected businessmen, with plenty of friends in high places in the government, military and police.

Critics argue he is also one of the nation's most crooked tycoons, given his ties to the underworld and the military, his use of hired thugs and his penchant for giving "donations" to officials.

Among Tomy's 'powerful' friends is Taufik Kiemas, husband of former President Megawati, and presumed éminence grise behind her political party, PDI-P.

In March 2003, upset at an article in Tempo magazine which Tomy felt had maligned him, about 100 of his hired thugs mobbed Tempo's editorial office on Jalan Proklamasi in Central Jakarta, injuring at least two of the magazine's employees. Police simply stood and watched, doing nothing to stop the attack. Some of the thugs were members of the Indonesian Young Bulls (BMI), a paramilitary organization within President Megawati Sukarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).

The police did nothing to stop the violence. Why? Well, that question was answered by one of Winata's chief goons, David Tjioe alias A. Miauw, who reportedly insinuated that some police were on his boss' payroll.

When Gus Dur was Megawati's predecessor as President, he ordered then Attorney General Marzuki Darusman and National Police chief Rusdihardjo in April 2000 to arrest Winata for allegedly running illegal gambling operations on Ayer island, north of Jakarta Bay, and on a cruise ship. But Darusman and Rusdihardjo proved to be woefully incompetent and Winata was never arrested, ostensibly due to a lack of evidence.

Time Magazine (July 2002) : What about gambling kingpin Tomy Winata? You were with him in the Thousand Islands off the coast of Jakarta in April, right?
Taufik Kiemas : It's a nice island that happens to be owned by Tomy Winata. If the President's family goes there for holiday, it's natural that he would be there.

It's nice to have powerful friends I have discovered. The Minister of Agriculture, Anton Apriyanto, a fellow blogger incidentally, was pleased on August 14th to note that Balai Besar Penelitian Padi Sukamandi (Indonesia's Centre for Rice) had been awarded an Achmad Bakrie Award from the Freedom Institute here in Jakarta.

The institute was set up by the Bakrie Brothers as a "Center for Democracy, Nationalism and Market Economy Studies". Unfortunately, its website doesn't seem to have been updated since February last year, shortly before the Bakrie subsidiary PT Lapindo Brantas was "grossly negligent" in causing the Sidoarjo mudflow that continues to this day.

It is not unknown for proposed recipients of the award to exercise their democratic right to refuse it. It's a shame that the still displaced and homeless in Sidoarjo can't do the same, but when you're still waiting to be offered compensation ......

Yep, this hybrid rice business is as clear as mud.