Adianto P. Simamora, Jakarta – Frustrated by procrastination and inaction by the government, traditional farmers and fishermen have acted to adapt to extreme weather changes resulting from climate change by using their own money.
Farmers in Pati, Central Java, have allocated one-eighth of their income to purchase water to irrigate their paddy fields to enable them to shift the planting cycle by two months ahead.
"We are forced to use our own money to buy water as no help is forthcoming from the government," Tanto, a farmer from Sukolilo in Central Java told a climate forum jointly organized by the Indonesian Civil Society Forum (CSF) and Oxfam on Monday.
Farmers and fishermen from several cities used the forum to share their ideas to adapt to extreme weather changes believed to be the products of climate change.
Farmers from Pati, Indramayu in West Java, and East Nusa Tenggara, admitted they faced unpredictable water supply and weather changes.
While farmers in Pati shifted their planting calendar by two months to avoid floods in January, farmers in East Nusa Tenggara still struggle to cope with "fake" rainy seasons, the forum heard.
"The rains usually fall once or twice toward the end of October triggering farmers to plant maize, but unfortunately if no more rains come in the next four weeks, this means the crops die," Dominggus Tes, a corn farmer from Nusa village, said.
Tanto said 170 farmers in his village had to pay Rp 92 million collectively every planting season to water their 150 hectares of paddy fields. Farmers plant paddy twice a year. "Each farmer pays one-eighth of his income [for water] after the harvest," he said.
Farmers in Pati have shifted the planting calendar to start from October instead of August, and from April instead of February to deal with the changes.
Indonesia has 12.4 million hectares of paddy fields, of which only 4 million hectares are irrigated. Data from the Agriculture Ministry revealed that 26,388 hectares of paddy fields suffered drought from April to June this year.
Meanwhile, traditional fishermen in Krui, West Lampung, said that during the last five years, they could not predict the weather in their area.
"Previously, we could predict the weather before going out to sea by observing the position of the South Star. But now we cannot," said Edy Hamdan, one of the fishermen.
He said they tried to adapt to the situation by creating new nets at a cost of Rp 20 million each. "Otherwise, we will get no results with the uncertain weather," he said.
The CSF urged the government to focus on concrete actions by allocating state funds for adaptation programs.