Grasshoppers swarm W. Kalimantan

Grasshoppers swarm W. Kalimantan

By Edi Petebang

PONTIANAK, West Kalimantan (JP): Crop-eating grasshoppers
(Locusta migrata) have swarmed much of the province, triggering
fears of a food shortage there this year.

Pak Bayer, 40, a farmer in Desa Tanjung, Jelai Hulu
subdistrict, Ketapang regency, says that the pests came in
unusually large swarms and have caused the widespread destruction
of food crops.

He says a fellow farmer in Jelai Hulu subdistrict, who lost
1.5 hectares of paddy crops in a single night, committed suicide
in desperation. Another farmer in Marau subdistrict in Ketapang
regency reportedly lost his mind after finding that his crops
were devastated.

Such sad stories abound about farmers who have lost their
crops overnight. Rice paddies are the grasshoppers' main target.
Other crops like cassava are safe -- the insects don't like sappy
plants such as rubber and cassava.

The outbreak began in April and reached its peak in October,
ravaging eight of Ketapang's 15 subdistricts.

Syamsu Akhyar, chief of the Ketapang's agricultural affairs
office, predicted that the regency may suffer from food shortages
this year due to the pests.

In Tumbang Titi, Marau, Manis Mata and Jelai Hulu -- the worst
affected subdistricts, and West Kalimantan's largest rice
producers -- farmers have replaced their devastated paddy with
cassava and corn.

The Ketapang regency government has made numerous efforts to
eradicate the pests, such as catching and burning the
grasshoppers and applying insecticides, but has met with only
limited success. It attempted to offer a reward of Rp 1,000 for
each kilogram of grasshoppers caught. However, the project
stopped after two weeks because the catch was just too sizable.
In two week's time, 5,500 kilograms of grasshoppers were brought
to the government from three subdistricts.

Each village in the affected areas have held traditional
rituals to ward off the pests. Ketapang regent Sunardi Basnu has
ordered residents to try everything possible to stop the drove.

The calamity is the second of its kind since 1968. Farmers say
that the swarm used to come every 20 years when the cycle
subsequently shortened to five years, and further to two years.

Farmers say that the fast breeding grasshoppers moved into the
forest every time they sprayed insecticides. According to Syamsu,
each grasshopper lays up to 500 eggs.

"The animals are extremely greedy. The drove could devour 1-2
hectares of food crops a night," said Unjang, a farmer in Tumbang
Titi.

Dwindling forests

In the past, farmers recall, the pests affected only a limited
area and their invasions lasted a much shorter period of time.
But since 1995, the stricken areas have been increasing.

Some farmers say that it is a divine curse for what people
have done to the environment.

"I give up. I've done all I am supposed to do (to eradicate
the pests) but to no avail," said Sinyo, a Dayak Jalai from
Marau.

Environmentalists attribute the pests to the large-scale
deforestation projects which make way for oil palm plantation
projects, especially in Ketapang.

Mateus Pilin, coordinator of the Community Based Forest
Management System program, theorizes that as the forest is
dwindling, grasshoppers are left with very few predators. Birds,
for example, have moved as a result of lost habitat.

"Birds, the grasshoppers' main predators, have largely
disappeared," Pilin says.

In the past, when forests were thick and predators abundant,
grasshoppers hardly posed any problem. Their populations were
properly checked.

Apparently, there is truth in Pilin's theory. The grasshoppers
have plagued the areas where the forests have disappeared and
been replaced by oil palm plantations, such as in Marau, Manis
Mata, Jelai Hulu, Tumbang Titi and Kendawangan. There, thousands
of hectares of plantations have been cultivated. The grasshoppers
do not eat the oil palms as long as the paddy and corn are still
available in the farmers' fields.

The animals normally feed largely on grass, food crops and
coconut leaves. Now that the staple food is running out, they
have begin to consume the oil palms as well.

Agricultural officials say that they have yet to find the most
effective pesticides to eradicate the pests.

The pest related problem is a heavy blow for West Kalimantan
farmers. It has arrived when the price of rubber, another main
source of income, has plummeted. A kilogram of dried latex brings
only Rp 1,200 - Rp 1,500 at the farmer level.

In the past, grasshoppers came only in the dry season and bred
in the lowlands. They now have been found year-round breeding in
plateaus and valleys.

Farmers have called on the provincial government to do more to
eradicate the pests before they overrun the whole of West
Kalimantan.

An official with the Ketapang Development Planning Board,
Sikat Gudag, has proposed that the grasshopers be caught and made
cattle feed.

Suparjiman, a Ketapang legislative council member, says that
the regency government has not done their best to overcome the
plague.