Q. So why are rice fields, paddies in English, flooded?
A. To keep down weeds.
A study published by WWF two weeks ago, with a focus on India - a country which faces a major water crisis, yet has the world’s largest rice cultivated area - found that the system of rice intensification (SRI) method has helped 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.
The system is based on eight principles which are different to conventional rice cultivation. They include developing nutrient-rich and un-flooded nurseries instead of flooded ones; ensuring wider spacing between rice seedlings; preferring composts or manure to synthetic fertilizers; and managing water carefully to avoid that the plants’ roots are not saturated.
The method was initially developed in the 1980s in Madagascar and has been demonstrated to be effective in 28 countries.
The report suggests that major rice-producing countries - such as India, China and Indonesia - convert at least 25% of their current rice cultivation to the new system by 2025. This would not only massively reduce the use of water but also help ensure food security. In addition, this will reduce significant amount of methane emissions. SRI fields do not emit methane as is the case with the more conventional system of growing rice.
Nigh on two years ago I focussed on Bayer CropScience who were full of themselves for helping develop "a more sustainable and holistic agricultural production system" involving secondary crops which would keep pests at bay(er).
This year, the webpage I quoted is much reduced and Bayer now dedicate all efforts to helps people living in a healthier and more comfort environment with wide range of professional and consumer products such as pesticides which are always approved by WHO and FAO.
So that's all right then. Their "innovative agricultural technologies and solutions" include the insecticides spiromesifen, ethiprole, and clothianidin, the fungicides fluoxastrobin and prothioconazole and the sulfonylurea herbicide mesosulfuron, and genetically modified crops.
Nowhere on their website is the acknowledgement that there exist more environmentally appropriate agricultural technologies, such as SRI, which are, unfortunately for the Bayer shareholders, better both in financial and health terms for crop growers and consumers.
Consumer acceptability is a crucial factor that needs to be respected, especially with regard to biotechnology crops. Our biggest challenge lies in not only developing ever better technologies, but also in addressing the societal acceptance of our products. We will need the cooperation of governments and other partners and stakeholders to shift towards science and risk based regulations and decision making that foster more sustainable technologies.
At least, they recognise that they're not very popular.
Unfortunately, the sustainable technologies they tout aren't. Biotechnology, including genetically modified seeds, is as 'addictive' as, say, heroin, in the sense that you always need more and it can take years to recover good health. Companies like Bayer market genetically modified seeds that are dependent on pesticides, herbicides and, I'm tempted to say, genocides. These hybrid seeds, cannot be harvested and saved for the next harvest thus forcing farmers to be dependent on the suppliers.
Rice has been the foundation of cultures and civilizations in many parts of Asia. Rice was first grown in the river deltas of East and South Asia thousands of years ago and it was the productivity of wetland rice that gave birth to the first civilisations in India, China and along the Mekong Delta. Rice has evolved together with these communities and today, come in a myriad of colours that range from white to brown to red to black; textures that may be grainy or sticky, and flavours.
Variety and diversity are the keys to survival among all living organisms. With ever-changing environmental conditions, one can no longer say that only the strongest and fittest will survive because they cannot be predetermined, so new strains of rice are always welcome. Obviously, being dependent on just the one will inevitably lead to disaster.
According to the executive director of Biotani Indonesia Foundation, Riza Tjahjadi, Bayer has been growing genetically modified rice in East Java and elsewhere since 2003. This is disturbing in that they have now withdrawn from the UK and much of the EU following reports of environmental damage, including the growth of "super weeds" and the eradication of wildlife.
The gene flow from a cultivation could not be managed satisfactory, so to ensure existence of all different agricultural practices in EU, including organic farming. In the same way the gene flow to wild relatives would be impossible to prevent.
So how come the Indonesian government continues to allow foreign companies to take over agribusiness? According to today's Jakarta Post, there is a plan to use "181,121 hectares of prime rice fields, mainly in East Java," for planting hybrid (GM) rice "to meet the local demand for rice".
Bayer is ready.
In Indonesia, BioScience offers Arize hybrid rice seed and Nunhems vegetables seed. Nunhems seed is market leader in Europe and has been operated in Indonesia since 2003. Arize hybrid rice seed started to established on 2004, and now has two registered hybrid rice named Hibrindo R-1 and Hibrindo R-2. On 2006, BioScience are ready to introduce Hibrindo R-1 in main rice area like East Java and West Java.
Bayer CropScience has many field staffs which are spread in many province like East Java, Central Java, West Java, Lampung, South Sumatera, Bengkulu, Jambi, West Sumatera, Riau, South Kalimantan, North Sumatera, North Sulawesi, Central Sulawesi and South Sulawesi. These field staffs promote all Bayer CS product in the daily activities.
According to Riza, seed will be imported from the Philippines, China and India. All these countries have been affected by the introduction of GM seed. In India, there has been an 'epidemic' of suicides among farmers who have found themselves in serious debt. Could the same be in store for Indonesian farmers?
The Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) has come out in favour of organic agriculture, something that Riza, through Biotani, has been promoting for several years. With the acceptance of SRI, is there any justification for Bayer's antics here?
BTW. Today, October 16th, is World Food Day.
Remember, you are what you eat.
Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed.
Mahatma Gandhi (1869 - 1948)
Rice is not a water plant - part 2
Bayer aren't alone in foisting sterile hybrid rice seeds on Indonesian farmers; however it is worth noting that they also supply Burma's vilified military regime.
Monstrous Monsanto
Among the sources of these seeds in Indonesia is the American company Monsanto. This company has long been vilified as one of the producers of agent orange, the defoliant sprayed over the forests of Vietnam which have been proven to cause genetic defects. There are calls to boycott the company because its current herbicide, generally known as Roundup, and its cousins marketed under about 90 different names, appear to be appear to be direct descendants of agent orange.
Monsanto is the world's leading producer of the herbicide glyphosate, marketed as Roundup. This is sold to small farmers as a pesticide, yet harms crops in the long run as the toxins accumulate in the soil. Plants eventually become infertile, forcing farmers to purchase genetically modified Roundup Ready Seed, a seed that resists the herbicide. This creates a cycle of dependency on Monsanto for both the weed killer and the only seed that can resist it. Both products are patented, and sold at inflated prices. Exposure to the pesticide is documented to cause cancers, skin disorders, spontaneous abortions, premature births, and damage to the gastrointestinal and nervous systems.
Of course, Monsanto has the backing of governments. In America they had the following:
1. Prior to being the Supreme Court Judge who put GW Bush in office, Clarence Thomas was Monsanto's lawyer.
2. Former US Secretary of Agriculture Anne Veneman was on the Board of Directors of Monsanto's Calgene Corporation.
3. Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was on the Board of Directors of Monsanto's Searle pharmaceuticals.
4. Former US Secretary of Health, Tommy Thompson, received $50,000 in donations from Monsanto during his winning campaign for Wisconsin's governor.
5. The two congressmen receiving the most donations from Monsanto during the 2000 election were Larry Combest (Former Chairman of the House Agricultural Committee) and Missouri Senate candidate John Ashcroft (later to be named Attorney General).
So how does (did?) Monsanto go about its business with the Indonesian government and the military?
Need I state the obvious?
According to the US authorities, Monsanto made some $700,000 in illicit payments to at least 140 current and former Indonesian government officials and their family members, from 1997 to 2002.
The biggest outlay, $373,990, was to buy land and build a house in the name of a wife of a senior Ministry of Agriculture official. Soleh Solahudin, who was agriculture minister from 1998 to 1999 and visited the company's US headquarters at its invitation, confirmed after a meeting with the KPK (Indonesia's Anti Corruption Commission) that both Monsanto and its local subsidiary, PT Monagro Kimia, had lobbied him to allow the cultivation of GM crops in Indonesia.
And is this business model restricted to Monsanto? Of course not. The bio-technologists in agri-business, which perhaps would be better termed as the aggro-business, have very close ties with Indonesia's so-called élite.
Monstrous Monsanto
Among the sources of these seeds in Indonesia is the American company Monsanto. This company has long been vilified as one of the producers of agent orange, the defoliant sprayed over the forests of Vietnam which have been proven to cause genetic defects. There are calls to boycott the company because its current herbicide, generally known as Roundup, and its cousins marketed under about 90 different names, appear to be appear to be direct descendants of agent orange.
Monsanto is the world's leading producer of the herbicide glyphosate, marketed as Roundup. This is sold to small farmers as a pesticide, yet harms crops in the long run as the toxins accumulate in the soil. Plants eventually become infertile, forcing farmers to purchase genetically modified Roundup Ready Seed, a seed that resists the herbicide. This creates a cycle of dependency on Monsanto for both the weed killer and the only seed that can resist it. Both products are patented, and sold at inflated prices. Exposure to the pesticide is documented to cause cancers, skin disorders, spontaneous abortions, premature births, and damage to the gastrointestinal and nervous systems.
Of course, Monsanto has the backing of governments. In America they had the following:
1. Prior to being the Supreme Court Judge who put GW Bush in office, Clarence Thomas was Monsanto's lawyer.
2. Former US Secretary of Agriculture Anne Veneman was on the Board of Directors of Monsanto's Calgene Corporation.
3. Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was on the Board of Directors of Monsanto's Searle pharmaceuticals.
4. Former US Secretary of Health, Tommy Thompson, received $50,000 in donations from Monsanto during his winning campaign for Wisconsin's governor.
5. The two congressmen receiving the most donations from Monsanto during the 2000 election were Larry Combest (Former Chairman of the House Agricultural Committee) and Missouri Senate candidate John Ashcroft (later to be named Attorney General).
So how does (did?) Monsanto go about its business with the Indonesian government and the military?
Need I state the obvious?
According to the US authorities, Monsanto made some $700,000 in illicit payments to at least 140 current and former Indonesian government officials and their family members, from 1997 to 2002.
The biggest outlay, $373,990, was to buy land and build a house in the name of a wife of a senior Ministry of Agriculture official. Soleh Solahudin, who was agriculture minister from 1998 to 1999 and visited the company's US headquarters at its invitation, confirmed after a meeting with the KPK (Indonesia's Anti Corruption Commission) that both Monsanto and its local subsidiary, PT Monagro Kimia, had lobbied him to allow the cultivation of GM crops in Indonesia.
And is this business model restricted to Monsanto? Of course not. The bio-technologists in agri-business, which perhaps would be better termed as the aggro-business, have very close ties with Indonesia's so-called élite.
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.
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.
Rice is not a water plant - Part 4
The push by Chinese hybrid seed companies, often in association with western companies such as, for example, Bayer which has already forged a relationship with Burma's Ministry of Agriculture, into other Asian rice-producing countries is because the Chinese seed companies are aware that in terms of rice productivity per hectare, the 'Great Yield' has failed.
Most of the farmers who opted for hybrid rice depend on farming for their livelihoods and accepted the new variety because they were told, time and again, that it would bring them a higher income. Yet almost three decades of growing and improving hybrid rice have brought few benefits. The cost of farming is increasing, while real incomes remain stagnant. Most rice farmers remain poor and are becoming ever more dependent on chemical fertilisers and pesticides.
The only improvements* experienced by the farmers we spoke to came from the money that their children, working in the cities, had sent to supplement the family income. But they also said that their kids missed the countryside and would rather be back home, if only the poverty were not so desperate.
*The abolition of the agricultural tax, first enacted in 1958 during Mao Zedong’s “Great Leap Forward” and finally abolished by Parliament in January 2006 has encouraged farmers to return to the land.
However, although it is not a significant success at home, hybrid rice is increasingly part of China’s empire-building strategy.
China has been wooing African countries, where it wants access to energy and mineral resources, through a number of hybrid rice technology transfer projects, most recently in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Mozambique.
In Asia, it has signed similar technical cooperation agreements with East Timor and Indonesia in which it committed itself to providing assistance in the production of hybrid rice with similar projects under way in Malaysia, the Philippines, Bangladesh, and Pakistan.
And in Burma, where Sichuan Nongda High-Tech Agriculture is selling directly to the military rulers, as they readily admit. However, even the rulers, whilst giving prominence to the Chinese vision, remain skeptical about the efficacy of the programme, quoting a farmer thus: "As we cannot re-sow (the imported hybrid rice), it has proved to be very expensive for us to grow. It cost us K5000 per-acre more in growing than our conventional species.”
In August this year, the Asia Times Online reported that the military-driven Chinese hybrid rice-for-opium crop-substitution program in the northern part of Burma's Shan state has resulted in four consecutive years of poor harvests and driven many ethnic-minority farmers into heavy debt or out of rice farming altogether.
Yet the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), Chinese business people and ethnic ceasefire and militia group leaders are all making large profits on the controversial project through the buying and selling of seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and the rice itself.
As farmers get into debt, their land is bought by the Chinese seed companies, who 'donate' swathes to the military. These lands become industrialised rice farms which sell their crops back to the Chinese merchants.
Is this the looming scenario in Indonesia?
Traditionally, farmers in all countries would choose from a huge variety of traditional rice, suited to their local ecology and social cultures. They would select and save seeds for the following cropping season, and lend them to, or exchange them with, other farmers in the village.
Growing rice from hybrid seeds destroys these cultures as the seeds cannot be saved; they lose their vigour or specially bred to be sterile, so the farmers have to buy new seeds from the seed dealers every year.The hybrids also fit poorly into the local ecology. Instead of switching to a different traditional variety to deal with new pests and diseases, as they would have done in the past, farmers begin using chemical pesticides, along with chemical fertilisers.
The social structure of farming communities is also broken as farmers are now caught within a dependency created by the hybrid seed companies such as Bayer, a dependency it admits.
Bayer CropScience has many field staffs which are spread in many province like East Java, Central Java, West Java, Lampung, South Sumatera, Bengkulu, Jambi, West Sumatera, Riau, South Kalimantan, North Sumatera, North Sulawesi, Central Sulawesi and South Sulawesi. These field staffs promote all Bayer CS product in the daily activities.
Yet - as elsewhere - here in Indonesia, farmers see few benefits in growing hybrid rice.
Recent data compiled by Indonesian researchers shows that hybrid rice still yields no more than conventional varieties under optimal conditions and that it suffers from poor eating quality and susceptibility to important pests and diseases like brown plant hopper and leaf blight, not to mention the problem of its high price for seeds. No wonder farmers are continuously rejecting it. In some parts of West Java, farmers also complain about the poor selling price of hybrid rice, particularly the Intani variety, compared to inbred varieties like IR77.
Is there a glimmer of hope for those farmers who want to retain a semblance of independence?
Don't hold your breath.
Most of the farmers who opted for hybrid rice depend on farming for their livelihoods and accepted the new variety because they were told, time and again, that it would bring them a higher income. Yet almost three decades of growing and improving hybrid rice have brought few benefits. The cost of farming is increasing, while real incomes remain stagnant. Most rice farmers remain poor and are becoming ever more dependent on chemical fertilisers and pesticides.
The only improvements* experienced by the farmers we spoke to came from the money that their children, working in the cities, had sent to supplement the family income. But they also said that their kids missed the countryside and would rather be back home, if only the poverty were not so desperate.
*The abolition of the agricultural tax, first enacted in 1958 during Mao Zedong’s “Great Leap Forward” and finally abolished by Parliament in January 2006 has encouraged farmers to return to the land.
However, although it is not a significant success at home, hybrid rice is increasingly part of China’s empire-building strategy.
China has been wooing African countries, where it wants access to energy and mineral resources, through a number of hybrid rice technology transfer projects, most recently in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Mozambique.
In Asia, it has signed similar technical cooperation agreements with East Timor and Indonesia in which it committed itself to providing assistance in the production of hybrid rice with similar projects under way in Malaysia, the Philippines, Bangladesh, and Pakistan.
And in Burma, where Sichuan Nongda High-Tech Agriculture is selling directly to the military rulers, as they readily admit. However, even the rulers, whilst giving prominence to the Chinese vision, remain skeptical about the efficacy of the programme, quoting a farmer thus: "As we cannot re-sow (the imported hybrid rice), it has proved to be very expensive for us to grow. It cost us K5000 per-acre more in growing than our conventional species.”
In August this year, the Asia Times Online reported that the military-driven Chinese hybrid rice-for-opium crop-substitution program in the northern part of Burma's Shan state has resulted in four consecutive years of poor harvests and driven many ethnic-minority farmers into heavy debt or out of rice farming altogether.
Yet the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), Chinese business people and ethnic ceasefire and militia group leaders are all making large profits on the controversial project through the buying and selling of seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and the rice itself.
As farmers get into debt, their land is bought by the Chinese seed companies, who 'donate' swathes to the military. These lands become industrialised rice farms which sell their crops back to the Chinese merchants.
Is this the looming scenario in Indonesia?
Growing rice from hybrid seeds destroys these cultures as the seeds cannot be saved; they lose their vigour or specially bred to be sterile, so the farmers have to buy new seeds from the seed dealers every year.The hybrids also fit poorly into the local ecology. Instead of switching to a different traditional variety to deal with new pests and diseases, as they would have done in the past, farmers begin using chemical pesticides, along with chemical fertilisers.
The social structure of farming communities is also broken as farmers are now caught within a dependency created by the hybrid seed companies such as Bayer, a dependency it admits.
Bayer CropScience has many field staffs which are spread in many province like East Java, Central Java, West Java, Lampung, South Sumatera, Bengkulu, Jambi, West Sumatera, Riau, South Kalimantan, North Sumatera, North Sulawesi, Central Sulawesi and South Sulawesi. These field staffs promote all Bayer CS product in the daily activities.
Yet - as elsewhere - here in Indonesia, farmers see few benefits in growing hybrid rice.
Recent data compiled by Indonesian researchers shows that hybrid rice still yields no more than conventional varieties under optimal conditions and that it suffers from poor eating quality and susceptibility to important pests and diseases like brown plant hopper and leaf blight, not to mention the problem of its high price for seeds. No wonder farmers are continuously rejecting it. In some parts of West Java, farmers also complain about the poor selling price of hybrid rice, particularly the Intani variety, compared to inbred varieties like IR77.
Is there a glimmer of hope for those farmers who want to retain a semblance of independence?
Don't hold your breath.
Rice is not a water plant - Part 5
Given the forces aligned against them, the simple answer to the question Is there a glimmer of hope for those farmers in Indonesia who want to retain a semblance of independence? is 'no'. With the decentralisation of governments to the provincial and regency level, there are few if any safeguards to protect local communities.That is how Indonesia has permitted the planting of genetically modified crops without public consultation and without adequate legal protection for farmers, consumers and the environment. The business and military communities act with the connivance of the politicians, who only manage to get themselves elected because they have the backing of those communities.
For example, on March 15th 2001, forty tons of genetically modified (GM) cotton seeds arrived from South Africa at Hasanuddin airport in Makassar, South Sulawesi. The seeds were trucked away under armed guard, Indonesian military police, to be sold to farmers in seven districts in the province. They were imported by PT Monagro Kimia the Indonesian subsidiary of US-based agro-chemical giant, Monsanto.
Local NGO activists opposing the imports tried to block the trucks from leaving the airport. They said the seed should be quarantined for detailed examination before distribution and accused the company of attempting to disguise what they were doing by using trucks marked "rice delivery".
What makes this show of might even more disturbing is that Monsanto and various governments, probably including the Indonesian cabinet, already knew that these seeds were not viable and contained antibiotic resistance genes that would make gonorrhea untreatable.
Fortunately (?), it transpires that the GM cotton failed to out-perform the indigenous variety in all but one of the 9 districts. Worse yet, the GM cotton succumbed to drought and the brown hopper.
After two considerably reduced harvests, Monsanto withdrew from South Sulawesi in 2003 and the farmers received no compensation. Of course.
This arrogance was possibly first practiced in East Timor, when, during Indonesia's occupation, many farmers were using and dependent on very expensive equipment that they could not produce or afford, such as tractors, chemical fertilizers, hybrid seeds, pesticides and other chemical products.
This dependency continued with the connivance of the UN's transitional mission, with assistance from the World Bank, which imported these things without studying traditional agricultural methods, the condition of the land and water, or the topography of East Timor.
"The tractors and hand tools they have given us are expensive to maintain and replace when they break down. The hybrid seeds that we are asked to plant will not provide for us in the next harvest. Although they yield more, hybrid seeds only produce one crop. Next year, we will have to buy more seeds. Like it or not, this is the current situation we face in East Timor."
More connections between the military and seed companies have been seen in Lampung, South Sumatra, which V.P. Jusuf Kalla visited this past week.
On Thursday, 28 September 2006,Minister of Agriculture Anton Apriyantono, signed a decree for releasing hybrid rice, namely Bernas Super (GH-2) and Bernas Prima (GH-7)’ both two hybrid rice varieties produced and marketed by PT Sumber Alam Sutera.
In conjunction with releasing these two hybrid rice varieties the promoters conducted first harvesting in the rice field 6.000 Sq meters located near the district military area (Kodim) in Tanggamus Lampung province. Among others there were DG food crop and the chief military commander oversee Region II Sriwijaya Mayor General Syarifuddin Tippe, the Lampung Governor Syahrudin Z Pagar Alam, Tomy Winata, and hundreds of farmers. (SH, 30Sep06)
Of course, one could argue that securing food resources in a country prone to floods, drought and all kinds of disasters, both manmade and natural, is a key function of the military, except that the Indonesian military is supposed to have withdrawn from its previous, Suhartoist, 'territorial function' in order to focus on foreign threats rather than internal ones.
But the seed companies have other sections of the state apparatus to protect their interests.
In East Java, publicly listed PT Bisi International, a division of Thai major seed company, Charoen Pokphand, is aiming to raise its net profit to Rp 91 billion in 2007, up 50 percent from Rp 60.7 billion last year, by researching better seeds and improving cooperation with farmers.
Bisi International, which grows and markets corn, rice and vegetable seeds has the capacity to produce 15,000 tons of field crop seeds and 4,000 tons of fruit and vegetables seeds each year.
The company has built 11 experimental farms in North Sumatra, Lampung, West Java, Central Java, East Java and West Nusa Tenggara to test new seed varieties. Also, to support its ongoing research and development, the company has also built a biotechnology research laboratory in Sumber Agung village, Kediri Regency, East Java.
The number of farmers working to grow the company’s hybrid rice and corn has reached more than 45,000, on more than 15,000 hectares of land. In 2002, just 15,000 farmers used 4,900 hectares to test the crops.
That's phenomenal growth, so how does it encourage co-operation with farmers, a co-operation which has been likened to fascism?
PT BISI, either stands for Benih Inti Subur Intani or Bright Indonesia Seed Industry
Asian Farmers broke this story a year ago today: Since 2003, around 10 peasants in Kediri regency have either been sued in court or put in jail after being accused by PT Bisi, a seed company, of illegal breeding and stealing of company seeds.
One of those farmers was Tukirin, a simple 53-year-old corn grower in Nganjuk Regency. He was punished with a suspended prison sentence and was ordered not to plant his own corn seeds for one year. Do read his story in depth and try to find the justification for not allowing Tukirin legal representation, for PT Bisi prosecuting someone who they had taught to breed seeds and why it was illegal for him to plant the seeds he had produced on his own land.
Cooperation or coercion?
For example, on March 15th 2001, forty tons of genetically modified (GM) cotton seeds arrived from South Africa at Hasanuddin airport in Makassar, South Sulawesi. The seeds were trucked away under armed guard, Indonesian military police, to be sold to farmers in seven districts in the province. They were imported by PT Monagro Kimia the Indonesian subsidiary of US-based agro-chemical giant, Monsanto.
Local NGO activists opposing the imports tried to block the trucks from leaving the airport. They said the seed should be quarantined for detailed examination before distribution and accused the company of attempting to disguise what they were doing by using trucks marked "rice delivery".
What makes this show of might even more disturbing is that Monsanto and various governments, probably including the Indonesian cabinet, already knew that these seeds were not viable and contained antibiotic resistance genes that would make gonorrhea untreatable.
Fortunately (?), it transpires that the GM cotton failed to out-perform the indigenous variety in all but one of the 9 districts. Worse yet, the GM cotton succumbed to drought and the brown hopper.
After two considerably reduced harvests, Monsanto withdrew from South Sulawesi in 2003 and the farmers received no compensation. Of course.
This arrogance was possibly first practiced in East Timor, when, during Indonesia's occupation, many farmers were using and dependent on very expensive equipment that they could not produce or afford, such as tractors, chemical fertilizers, hybrid seeds, pesticides and other chemical products.
This dependency continued with the connivance of the UN's transitional mission, with assistance from the World Bank, which imported these things without studying traditional agricultural methods, the condition of the land and water, or the topography of East Timor.
"The tractors and hand tools they have given us are expensive to maintain and replace when they break down. The hybrid seeds that we are asked to plant will not provide for us in the next harvest. Although they yield more, hybrid seeds only produce one crop. Next year, we will have to buy more seeds. Like it or not, this is the current situation we face in East Timor."
More connections between the military and seed companies have been seen in Lampung, South Sumatra, which V.P. Jusuf Kalla visited this past week.
On Thursday, 28 September 2006,Minister of Agriculture Anton Apriyantono, signed a decree for releasing hybrid rice, namely Bernas Super (GH-2) and Bernas Prima (GH-7)’ both two hybrid rice varieties produced and marketed by PT Sumber Alam Sutera.
In conjunction with releasing these two hybrid rice varieties the promoters conducted first harvesting in the rice field 6.000 Sq meters located near the district military area (Kodim) in Tanggamus Lampung province. Among others there were DG food crop and the chief military commander oversee Region II Sriwijaya Mayor General Syarifuddin Tippe, the Lampung Governor Syahrudin Z Pagar Alam, Tomy Winata, and hundreds of farmers. (SH, 30Sep06)
Of course, one could argue that securing food resources in a country prone to floods, drought and all kinds of disasters, both manmade and natural, is a key function of the military, except that the Indonesian military is supposed to have withdrawn from its previous, Suhartoist, 'territorial function' in order to focus on foreign threats rather than internal ones.
But the seed companies have other sections of the state apparatus to protect their interests.
In East Java, publicly listed PT Bisi International, a division of Thai major seed company, Charoen Pokphand, is aiming to raise its net profit to Rp 91 billion in 2007, up 50 percent from Rp 60.7 billion last year, by researching better seeds and improving cooperation with farmers.
Bisi International, which grows and markets corn, rice and vegetable seeds has the capacity to produce 15,000 tons of field crop seeds and 4,000 tons of fruit and vegetables seeds each year.
The company has built 11 experimental farms in North Sumatra, Lampung, West Java, Central Java, East Java and West Nusa Tenggara to test new seed varieties. Also, to support its ongoing research and development, the company has also built a biotechnology research laboratory in Sumber Agung village, Kediri Regency, East Java.
The number of farmers working to grow the company’s hybrid rice and corn has reached more than 45,000, on more than 15,000 hectares of land. In 2002, just 15,000 farmers used 4,900 hectares to test the crops.
That's phenomenal growth, so how does it encourage co-operation with farmers, a co-operation which has been likened to fascism?
PT BISI, either stands for Benih Inti Subur Intani or Bright Indonesia Seed Industry
Asian Farmers broke this story a year ago today: Since 2003, around 10 peasants in Kediri regency have either been sued in court or put in jail after being accused by PT Bisi, a seed company, of illegal breeding and stealing of company seeds.
One of those farmers was Tukirin, a simple 53-year-old corn grower in Nganjuk Regency. He was punished with a suspended prison sentence and was ordered not to plant his own corn seeds for one year. Do read his story in depth and try to find the justification for not allowing Tukirin legal representation, for PT Bisi prosecuting someone who they had taught to breed seeds and why it was illegal for him to plant the seeds he had produced on his own land.
Cooperation or coercion?
Rice is not a water plant - Part 6 - Conclusion?
Multi-national seed conglomerates wishing to impose non-appropriate and 'standardised' agricultural technologies are backed up with the might of central and decentralised local governments which provide support with their security forces and interventionist legal powers.
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 .
...............................................
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?
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 .
...............................................
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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