Borrowed system may not make land project a success

By Prapti Widinugraheni

BALI (JP): The government's project to convert one million hectares of peat soil into land for agriculture in Kalimantan is unlikely to produce optimum results if the project relies solely on "borrowed" technology, an agricultural economist said.

Steve R. Tabor, a researcher at the Netherlands-based International Service for National Agricultural Research, said here yesterday the project would achieve "less-profitable" results if the developers failed to do their share of research and development and opted, instead, for technology brought from outside the region, even if it was proven successful there.

He noted the need for "sequencing" development priorities in such cases. He said that for adverse areas like Kalimantan and Irian Jaya, developers must first understand the ecosystems of the regions and master the technology required to develop those areas, because agriculture is a very site-specific sector.

"You can build the infrastructure, clear the jungle, put in the irrigation and build the roads. And you can try to take things from Sulawesi or Sumatra and see if they'll grow in Kalimantan ... But what about the insects? What about pest problems and the different soils?"

Thus, even though the million-hectare project may succeed, it may still pose many risks, he said.

Tabor, who previously worked as a consultant for the Ministry of Agriculture, considered that the main task in developing new regions is to apply better-managed technological efforts.

"It takes quite some time to develop a suitable technology and understand the ecosystems. Agricultural research does not work in only a six-month period," he said.

The mega project involves opening up one million hectares of peat land in Central Kalimantan and converting it into agricultural land. About 600,000 hectares is expected to be used for rice fields and the rest for other types of crops, such as oil palm.

The project is currently being developed jointly by seven ministries, including the ministries of public works, agriculture, transmigration and forestry.

The construction of the project's main irrigation canals, however, has been assigned to a private company, PT Sumatra Timur -- a subsidiary of the Sambu Group -- which the government considered to have successfully developed similar projects in peat land areas in Riau.

Research

Tabor said that conducting such a large project in such an adverse region needs years of research.

Within the process, he said, there is a "response lag" between the time the research is applied and when it can produce the most optimum results for the region. There is also a "gestation lag", which occurs during the process of preparing the project, building infrastructure and choosing and developing the most effective technology to be applied in the region.

He said a period of five to 15 years is needed before the overall process can settle in and begin meeting the needs of people.

"I guess that for the new frontiers of Indonesia's agriculture, much greater and much more effective research efforts are long overdue," he said.

Tabor noted that whatever the mega project's outcome, the first to be affected by it would be farmers.

"If the project fails, farmers will be the first ones to be hurt. But if it is a success, they will also be the first to enjoy the results," he said.

The one-million hectare project came from an initiative of President Soeharto last year, who considered the project necessary to maintain the country's self-sufficiency in rice.

Over the past two years, Indonesia has had to rely partly on rice imports after unfavorable weather in 1993 ruined harvests in many parts of the country.

Indonesia became self-sufficient in rice in 1983 after being the world's biggest rice importer.