Rita A.Widiadana, Denpasar – The classic picture-postcard views of Bali, with its gorgeous multitiered rice fields and toiling farmers, could soon cease to exist as more and more villagers decide they can make more money selling their land than working it.
Putu Wiranegara, who owns three hectares of rice fields in Canggu, Badung regency, said his harvests had decreased over the last five years because of a lack of fertilizers and workers, and climate changes.
"I used to harvest five tons of grain for every hectare, but now the land yields less than two tons per hectare," he said, adding that the rising price of fertilizer, which now costs about Rp 1,050 (11 US cents) per kilogram, had contributed to falling harvests.
"The production costs of working rice fields cannot match the current market price for rice (of about Rp 1,700 per kilogram)," he said.
Complicating matters, Putu now has to look as far away as East Java for workers. "Very few people here want to work as farmers. They prefer to work at hotels, villas, restaurants or in the garment industry," Putu said.
The farmer eventually decided it would be more profitable to rent part of his land to a property developer. "I didn't want to sell my ancestral land, but these days farmers have to find different ways to earn a living," he said.
Putu is just one of thousands of farmers across Bali who have sold or rented their land to property developers eager to put up hotels, resorts, villas, luxury housing complexes and entertainment centers. The phenomenon has affected farmers in Ubud, Tabanan, Badung and Singaraja.
Data from the Bali Agriculture Office paints a gloomy picture of the farming industry on the island. Three regencies, Gianyar, Tabanan and Buleleng, traditionally regarded as Bali's rice baskets, are losing productive fields at an alarming rate.
Gianyar loses about 58 hectares of productive rice fields a year, leaving just 26,248 hectares of productive land in the regency. However, the regency has been able to maintain its harvest yield at about 107,791.20 tons of rice per year. Rice consumption in the regency is about 63,926.63 tons annually, leaving Gianyar a surplus of 43,864 tons.
Buleleng, in the north of Bali, once known for its quality rice, is facing a similar problem. Rice production dropped from 59,557 tons in 2004 to 53,602 tons last year. The amount of productive land in the regency fell from 10,867 hectares in 2004 to 10,618 hectares in 2005.
Tabanan traditionally has been Bali's top rice producer, but like other regencies it also has been losing productive land. Currently, the regency produces about 95,866 tons of rice a year, while rice demand in the regency is 57,841 tons per year, leaving it a surplus of 38,032 tons.
Nyoman Supartha, chairman of the Bali chapter of the Indonesian Farmers Association, said that despite the loss of productive land, Bali was still able to provide residents a sufficient supply of rice.
"We have around 130,967 tons of rice surplus, so we don't need to acquire rice from outside Bali, let alone import it from another country," he said in a recent hearing with provincial legislative members.
However, he said farmers needed help from the government to improve their living standards. "The local government needs to stop being halfhearted and get serious about supporting and developing the agricultural sector, especially after the second Bali bombings," he said.
More than 60 percent of the island's three million people still rely on farming to earn a living, while Bali's tourist industry has yet to recover from the latest terrorist attack on the island.
The facts are disheartening, he said. The Bali government has allocated just Rp 28 billion, or 2.8 percent of its annual budget of Rp 998 billion, to develop the agricultural sector.
"Ideally, the provincial government should allocate at least 30 percent of its budget to build necessary infrastructure, improve farming technology and provide farmers with easy access to microcredits," he said.
Marketing is another problem. The Bali branch of the state commodities agency (Dolog) purchases little rice from local farmers. And, according to I Wayan Supartha, professor of agriculture at Udayana University in Denpasar, the regional commodities agency uses unfair standards in judging the quality of the local rice it does buy.
"I visited farmers in Tabanan regency and saw how Dolog set the standards when buying local rice. There is a lack of transparency and a lack of fairness in judging the quality of rice," he said.
In the last 10 years, he said, the government's agricultural policies have been unjust in their treatment of poor farmers.
Citing an example, he said farmers never produce unmilled rice. They only produce threshed unhusked grain that must be processed. The price of unhusked rice is set at Rp 1,700 per kilo, while the price of husked rice is Rp 4,500 per kilo. Because of the large difference in prices, farmers do not benefit when the market price of rice goes up.
He said lawmakers should consider issuing a law to protect poor farmers, offering incentives to encourage them to increase production and the quality of their rice. These incentives could be in the form of improved access to fertilizer, seeds and more importantly technical and marketing assistance from related agencies, including the provincial agricultural office.
"Bulog currently functions as the government's shield. It works to benefit the government and to support its policies instead of helping farmers," Wayan asserted.
He urged farmers to set up their own associations to improve their bargaining position. "There are several farmers associations, but many of the members are not really farmers and simply use the organizations as political vehicles," he added.