Effects of transmigration policy questioned

Effects of transmigration policy questioned

By Deny Hidayati

Indonesia's transmigration program could find itself in a quagmire.

SINGAPORE: The conversion of forested areas for transmigration settlement has resulted in dramatic changes in Indonesia's landscape. Consequently, transmigration has become a controversial subject and a target of criticism among international and national groups, particularly non-governmental organizations.

The debate encompasses a wide range of issues, including the negative impact on the local population and the environment, as well as the scope and cost of such schemes.

More recently, the government announced its decision to clear one million hectares of gambut (peatland) forest in the province of Central Kalimantan. According to the Minister of Public Works, the government plans to open 20,000 hectares of land for 1996/1997 alone in order to achieve this target. It was proposed to clear 70 hectares of gambut land every day. However, it appears that the target cannot be reached owing to difficulties in implementation and, by the end of 1996, only 10 percent or about 2,000 hectares of gambut land had been cleared.

The reclamation of gambut areas is closely related to important policy issues that affect the development of marginal lands in the Outer Islands of Indonesia. The Indonesian government expects the transmigration program to play an important role in the development of gambut areas, although its original purpose was to redistribute excess population from Java. The program is also regarded as an important means of increasing food production, especially rice, in the Outer Islands.

The development of gambut areas in the coastal areas for cultivation is, however, problematic. Gambut land is mainly composed of woody residues of roots, stumps, trunks, leaves and branches of trees. It is ecologically fragile and its development is hindered by inherent physical, biological features as well as socio-economic constraints. Acidity and toxicity are major agricultural problems in many gambut transmigration settlements in Central Kalimantan, such as Barambai, Belawang and Tabunganen. The soils in these areas are low in minerals and high in acid.

Evidently, gambut is unsuitable soil for food crop cultivation, particularly for growing wetland rice. The development of gambut areas requires more effort, higher investment and different strategies than other fertile areas. For example, gambut land should not be cleared using heavy tractors as it will sweep away the shallow topsoil. However, in order to clear one million hectares, the use of tractors and other heavy machinery is, unfortunately, unavoidable and considered essential in order to open up as much as 70 hectares of gambut a day. Consequently, the soil becomes highly acidic and the use of heavy machinery also causes high pressure on the soil, resulting in compaction and run-off.

Another important issue of the transmigration program is the huge number of people to be settled in the scheme. Transmigration Minister Siswono Yudohusodo said that his department will move about 316,000 households or about 1.3 million people to Central Kalimantan within five years. The numbers, of course, have a huge demographic impact. It will almost double the population of Central Kalimantan. The central government seems unaware of the dangers of such a drastic increase in population. The number of transmigrants will gradually outnumber the local and indigenous people, threatening their lands, and social and cultural identity.

Transmigrants, who are unfamiliar with gambut areas, have to adjust and modify to the new environment. Unfortunately, many studies have shown that most transmigrants do not have adequate information about their destinations. For example, the transmigrants in Tabunganen, a peat swamp settlement, were shocked, on their arrival to see flood waters reaching 1.5 meters water in their settlement. They could not swim, and neither did they know how to use simple water transport. They also did not know how to convert saline and acid water into fresh water, or how to look for fresh water.

The situation is often made worse because site preparation is far from adequate. Houses for the transmigrants have not been adequately built and most do not have suitable drainage or irrigation systems. For example, transmigrants in Tabunganen had to wait 11 years for the construction of suitable drainage infrastructure. During the first two years of their settlement, their area was flooded almost continuously and no crops could be grown. The government then constructed a dyke near the area and pumped the water out. Unfortunately, tides exceeded the volume of water pumped out. After this failure, the government constructed a large dam covering the whole Tabunganen Transmigration project, and also developed and rehabilitated tertiary canals.

In the following year, flap gates (inlets) were constructed in each of the canals. However, the gates broke just after the official opening ceremony because they were poorly constructed. Consequently, water flooded the fields because of the lack of drainage. To overcome the problem, the government, after spending a large sum of money, finally removed all the flap gates.

It is difficult to implement intensive agricultural practices in conditions where facilities and information are still inadequate or inappropriate. Although transmigration agricultural programs have promoted intensive cultivation, using high-yielding rice varieties, chemical fertilizers and pesticides, transmigrants have not been provided with any explanation on how to use this improved technology in the local environment. Therefore, the goal of the transmigration program to increase rice production through the expansion and intensification of agriculture has not been successful.

Ironically, transmigrants, who were intended to be pioneers and initiators in the practice of intensive permanent agriculture in traditional cultivation areas have, in many instances, adopted local methods of cultivation, such as the slash and burn system, thereby putting greater pressure on the land and the traditional cultivation practices of the indigenous people.

The over-extension of settlement into unsuitable marginal land is due to over-ambitious resettlement targets. Many settlements are located on poor quality lands with a high risk of failure. Cleared forests have been transformed into farming areas, although these are mostly unsuitable for agriculture. In spite of the history of failures, the conversion of forests for transmigration settlements seems to continue, and this will inevitably add to the problems faced by the transmigrants and local people.

A cloud of doubt is still hovering over the reclamation of gambut areas, especially on the long-term economic, social and ecological stability of large-scale transmigrant settlements. The Indonesian government could perhaps avoid implementing policies formulated in Jakarta without taking into consideration local conditions. Gambut areas have a unique ecosystem, requiring a specific agroecological development strategy. It cannot be packaged or generalized like other agricultural programs. Experience suggests that the most crucial task for the Ministry of Transmigration is to provide transmigrants with information about gambut and how to deal with its unique ecosystem.

Dr. Deny Hidayati is a researcher at PPT-LIPI (Center for Population and Manpower Studies, Indonesian Institute of Sciences).