Farmers Look To Tradition To Help The Environment

Bantul, Yogyakarta - The Javanese word wiwit means a beginning, or a start. So the fact that farmers carry out the wiwit tradition as they approach the harvest shows that, for them, the harvest is not the end of the cycle.

Rather, it marks the beginning of a new process in agriculture.

“To balance the ecosystem and maintain soil fertility, our ancestors had enough local wisdom to deliver an environmental message through the wiwit tradition,” said Sri Wahyuningsih, the organizer of Anak Alam Ngestiharjo Studio, Kasihan, Bantul.

The environmental message that the wiwit tradition conveys, said Sri Wahyuningsih, is that the harvest isn`t the end because the rice plant goes on. To ensure the rice seeds survive, the wiwit tradition begins by choosing good stalks of rice. The older farmers cut the rice stalks using ani-ani (a small tool used to harvest rice). These are saved and used as the seeds in the next planting period.

The wiwit tradition also carries an important message in understanding the balance of nature. The ubo rampe (totality) offering embedded in the wiwit tradition affects the yields of other plants apart from rice: Umbi-umbian (tubers), pulses and other market garden crops also benefit.

Offerings in the form of produce from the soil also remind farmers to preserve many different varieties of plants. Doing so ensures the ecosystem remains in balance, which also benefits farmers.

Among the offerings included in part of the wiwit tradition that is the ceremony giving thanks to Dewi Sri (the Javanese rice fertility goddess) are ingkung (boiled chicken), flowers and jajanan pasar (different types of traditional food and snacks).

The environmental message passed down over generations through the wiwit tradition is founded in the cultural practices of the past, at a time when writing was unknown to Javanese society and traditions were passed on orally only.

But with the modern push to increase crop yields, the need to consider the balance of nature was overlooked and the wiwit tradition was pushed aside. The value of traditional local wisdom was discarded and almost became extinct.

For example, the older farmers` process of cutting the ripe rice stalks before harvest was considered illogical. Many people saw no point in making life complicated in this way, because, they said, the hybrid seed that is now available offers much higher yields.

But modern farming methods have upset the balance of nature. To boost yields, chemical fertilizers were used, and for a time the harvest yields actually did increase. Over time it was found that the fertilizers damaged the soil, and by killing insects and other creatures, pesticides destroyed the working of the ecosystem.

The wiwit tradition, however, maintains nature`s systems. When it comes to cultivating seedlings, for example, the rice seeds that had been chosen by the older farmers were soaked in water and dust before planting. Grains of rice that were bad or had been attacked by mold would float, and as a result they did not get planted.

The good-quality local rice seeds that used to kept back for the new season were discarded when the New Order government applied Supra Insus (an intensive rice production program) using hybrid seed.

So the loss of the wiwit tradition also meant the loss of the quality local seed, and various strains of local rice have now been lost. Ironically, local Indonesian varieties have now been developed in others countries such as Japan and patented.

The upshot of the changes and government policy was that large numbers of Indonesian farmers lost their independence and had to rely on hybrid varieties and chemical fertilizers, the continuing use of which further damaged the soil.

To return the balance of nature and restore farmers` independence, a farmers` group from Suka Tani, Ngestiharjo, Kasihan Bantul was started three years ago. Its aim: To shift back to using the values drawn from local wisdom. Among these is the development of environmentally friendly agriculture: One of the traditions being reintroduced is the wiwit tradition, being revived as one of the action points in the environmental preservation campaign.

“We want to deliver the environmentally friendly message which was planted by our ancestors through the wiwit tradition,” said Kasiran, the head of the Suka Tani Group.

To maintain the balance of nature and recover the fertility of the damaged soils, the Suka Tani Group has now developed organic plants using an intensive system to plant rice, known as SRI.

The SRI system uses rice seedlings that are no more than 15 days old. They are planted two to three centimeters deep with at least 25 centimeters between the plants. Only one seedling is planted in each hole.

Rice seedlings that are older than 25 days must be planted more than 5 centimeters deep with 10 to 25 centimeters between each hole and with several plants in one hole.

Research, trials and tests by the Agricultural Technology Faculty (FTP) at Gadjah Mada University (UGM), working with farmers` groups throughout the DIY (the special district of Yogyakarta), have shown the SRI system to be more environmentally friendly because it uses animal manure and compost.

The production costs are also lower. One hectare of land needs a maximum of only 10 kilograms of seed. Compare this with the conventional model, which requires between 30 and 50 kilograms of gabah (unhulled paddy grains separated from the stalks).

With SRI, the harvest yield can reach between 8 and 11.5 tonnes per hectare of dry gabah or higher. Conventional systems yield an average of 5.2 to 5.4 tonnes of harvested dry gabah.

“To recover the fertility of the soil, our groups actually minimize their use of chemical fertilizers and increase the amount of animal manure,” explained Kasiran.

Kasiran added that the farmers` problems were now more about stress, caused by discrimination through government policy. “Farmers are now dependent and not independent,” he said.

Through the wiwit tradition and organic planting, Kasiran hopes that the SRI system will help rebuild the farmers` independence. Kasiran dreams that in the future farmers will not be dependent on expensive and harmful chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

As the latest science is starting to show, nature herself looks after plants` fertilizer and pesticide needs without decreasing yields. Slamet Susanto

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com  (14 April 2009)

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