Bali's sustainable social and agricultural system
Bali's sustainable social and agricultural system
I Ketut Sumarta, Contributor, Denpasar
More than a thousand years before 178 countries gathered in
Rio de Janeiro in l992 to formulate the most crucial agenda to
save the earth, known as Agenda 21, the ancient and humble
Balinese farmers were already using a sustainable agricultural
system to maintain the equilibrium of the earth and its
ecosystem.
Since the ninth century, Balinese peasants have been
practicing a wise farming system called Subak, in which groups of
rice farmers with adjacent fields worked together to organize
planting, irrigation and rituals to maintain social cooperation.
The Balinese farmers knew exactly the characteristics of their
soil. They decided on everything such as the dates for planting
the seeds and harvesting the rice, distributing water,
fertilizing the plants and performing specific religious rituals
in relation to the utilization of their paddies.
Every person who owned a rice field adjacent to other fields
had to become a member of a Subak organization to establish a
cooperative effort to bring the water to their lands. In one
Subak area, the farmers established a temple to jointly worship
Devi Sri, the goddess of prosperity.
For hundreds of years, the practice of Subak brought
happiness, tranquility and prosperity to the people of Bali, who
were blessed with fertile land and abundant agricultural
resources. They lived in harmony with their neighbors, nature and
the intangible world of the deities, which protected their
welfare.
A yellow carpet of beautiful terraced rice fields covered most
of Bali. No one in Bali suffered from lack of food. And today,
there are still about 1,200 Subak organizations across Bali,
whose members are descendants of the Subak pioneers of centuries
ago.
But Bali has undergone drastic changes. The current Subak
organizations face serious threats from different agricultural
systems and unwise development projects on the once productive
rice fields.
"The story of the sustainable Subak farming system is reaching
its end due to the exploitation of Bali as Indonesia's number one
tourist destination," said Nyoman Sutawan, a professor of
agriculture at the Udayana University in Denpasar.
Once productive and fertile rice fields have been transformed
into luxury hotels, villas and real estate complexes, such as
those in the opulent tourist areas of Ubud and Tabanan in
southern Bali, which had been the main sources of rice on the
island.
Nyoman Gelebet, an expert in urban planning, said poorly
planned development projects had destroyed paddies and badly
disturbed the irrigation system, cutting off the water supply to
neighboring rice fields.
"The most important point is that these development projects
destroyed already established farming, social and religious
systems, which in turn affected the balance between humans and
their environment," he said.
The rapid growth of the tourist industry and development
projects, however, are not the main causes of the destruction of
the Subak system. The top-down agricultural policy of the New
Order regime under former president Soeharto contributed greatly
to the destruction of the Subak system in Bali.
In the early l970s, the New Order government introduced, or
more precisely forced, Balinese farmers to adopt modern farming
systems with high-quality paddy seeds.
The government decided which types of seeds and insecticides
were to be used by the farmers, which was contrary to the bottom-
up Subak system.
The government's agricultural policy immediately changed the
environmentally friendly farming and irrigation systems used by
the Balinese farmers.
"The Subak is a very democratic and transparent organization
in which each member has similar rights to voice his opinion
concerning all matters of the farming and irrigation system,"
explained Sutawan.
All Subak members are required to meet periodically to jointly
deal with their farming activities. The head of a Subak, called a
pekaseh, is elected democratically for a period of four to five
years. The Subak head is responsible for ensuring all members
receive their rights.
"Within this traditional organization, the Balinese people
actually learned tolerance and democracy. They also learned to
preserve the environment, which is in line with the Balinese
concept of the Tri Hita Karana cosmological balance," Sutawan
said.
The modern and complicated agricultural and irrigation systems
forcefully introduced by the government not only disturbed the
Subak system, but also the harmonious life of the Balinese people
with the environment.
Another important factor behind the loss of the Subak is
economy. Many Balinese are no longer interested in becoming
farmers or owning and working rice fields.
Many landowners and farmers have sold their property to make
way for development projects.
"The yields of their rice fields are no longer adequate to
support them. Many farmers have changed profession to become
laborers or low-paid hotel workers," said sociologist Putu
Suasta.
All of this "progress" has changed much of Bali from an
agrarian to an industrial society.
"But they do not realize that they are actually destroying
their own island," Putu said.
It was the traditional and ancient wisdom that maintained the
sustainability of the island, he said.