Bali needs a new green revolution

Rita A. Widiadana, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar, Bali

With tourism in Bali at its lowest point in decades, the government and the people are now making efforts to return to their roots, literally.

Last Sunday on Jan. 12, President Megawati Soekarnoputri visited the remote Salamadeg farming village in Tabanan, around 70 kilometers northwest of Denpasar, to encourage local farmers to increase their rice production.

Clad in a fashionable black suit accentuated with a red collar, the president in her capacity as chairperson of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) walked down a narrow, muddy path and planted a rice seedling in the paddy.

"I urge the farmers of Tabanan to maintain their rice fields and to increase production so that they can provide food," Megawati told the local farmers.

Tabanan has been Bali's most prominent rice producing region, yielding thousands of tons of rice and other agriculture commodities. In the past, Bali was able to provide all its own food commodities, including rice, corn, vegetables, cattle, fish and poultry products.

But as the island focused more on tourism, which generated millions of foreign exchange dollars, the local people began to leave their traditional vocations such as farmers and fishermen.

Today, Bali has to buy rice and other commodities from Java and other islands. The island cannot even provide flowers and young coconut leaves, needed for daily offerings by the majority Balinese Hindu.

"I hope that Bali could again become a hub of agriculture because now we have to focus on agriculture in order to be able to reach our sustainability in food provision," Megawati said.

In the last few years, most Balinese would have rejected Megawati's idea. But, as the island's tourism industry has now been crippled by the terrorist attacks on Oct.12, the idea is gaining more popularity.

Even Bali Governor I Dewa Made Beratha has declared the year 2003 as the year to promote agriculture. Various seminars and meetings with experts have been held to obtain necessary input to implement its agricultural programs. Yet, many experts were quite skeptical about the government's intentions.

Nyoman Erawan, economic analyst at Udayana University, Bali has a great agricultural potential. Before the tourism industry began to grow by leaps and bounds in the late l960s, agriculture was the island's main priority.

Millions of hectares of rice fields, plantations and forested areas produce abundant sources of food and other agricultural commodities.

The rapid and uncontrolled growth of tourism has badly affected the sector as the island had to sacrifice its green forests, multi-terraced paddy fields and fertile plantations to make way for various tourism development projects including the construction of luxury hotels, villas, restaurants, entertainment centers and supporting infrastructure like roads and airports.

"Year by year, the agricultural sector became marginalized both by the provincial government and the Balinese people who idolized the fast-track US dollar-oriented tourism industry," Erawan said in a seminar on the future of the Balinese economy in Sanur recently.

Bali's economic structure has been drastically changed from agricultural-oriented to tourism-oriented. The change of the structure has certainly affected the output by the agricultural sector.

"Almost all regencies in Bali experienced a drastic change in their economic structure. But the worst ones happened in Badung regency and Denpasar mayoralty, two of Bali's richest tourist areas," Erawan said.

According to a study released by the university, Badung and Denpasar received less than 10 percent of their revenue from the agricultural sector. Almost 80 percent of their income comes from foreign tourist dollars.

The change in economic structure has also impacted on employment opportunities. Over the last four decades, around 40 percent of the nearly 2 million strong workforce in Bali has been absorbed into the tourism sector.

Job opportunities in the agricultural sector have been declining significantly due to the change in land ownership, unattractive incentives and the reduction in rice fields and plantation areas.

"Many local people have sold their rice fields to investors or real estate developers," explained Putu Suasta, a noted sociologist said recently. "Farmers and villagers prefer to work in hotels, restaurants and as tour guides, which they regard as more respected and financially secure than being a farmer."

Erawan added that tourism has also created social problems including overpopulation of urban areas. "People living in remote villages have left in droves for the bright lights of Badung (includes Kuta, Legian etc.) and Denpasar trying to find work there," he said. Tourism has also created a wide gap between the wealthy urbanized areas and the rest of the regencies including Buleleng in the north, Jembrana in the west, Klungkung and Karang Asem in the east as Tabanan and Bangli in the middle of the island.

"If we want to develop the agricultural sector, we have to do it in a revolutionary way in terms of technology, financing and strong political will from the government," he said.

Ida Ayu Agung Mas, founder of the sustainable tourism program, the Sua Bali foundation, commented sharply, "Agriculture has been neglected for so long. It was a past issue," she said.

Now, after the terror attacks, everyone in Bali is busy talking about agriculture again. "If we talk about agriculture in traditional terms, that era is already gone. We cannot rely on traditional systems. It's too late," she added. Ida Ayu went on to say that in the past few decades, the Balinese people seemed to become addicted to tourism." Tourism is like an addictive substance. People cannot release themselves from it," maintained the lecturer at the University of Udayana.

"Many Balinese people have left their paddy fields, their fishing boats to join the appealing tourism industry which offers more glittering and dynamic activities and probably, larger income," she mentioned. Ida Ayu made it clear about her doubts whether the provincial government's willingness to shift the robust tourism industry to the now abandoned agricultural sector.

"I really doubt that it is anything but political rhetoric to appease the Balinese people who are now suffering since Oct. 12," she explained. In order to develop agriculture, the government, she said, must have clear and achievable action plans. "as a long-term program, it could be possible," Ida Ayu maintained.

Creating people-oriented agricultural programs will require honesty and clear minds. "In the globalization and free trade era, relying on traditional systems of agriculture without certain protective efforts and incentives is a suicidal action," warned Ida Ayu.

Tourism and capitalism have set aside the roles of agriculture and farmers. "Balinese farmers have don't have a pride in their profession and feel disgraced about being a farmer," she said.

"The problem lies on whether the provincial government, legislative members and all of the Balinese people are willing to intelligently reverse the trend of the current tourism paradigm and to reconsider agriculture as their main priority."