Kalimantan's Dayaks becoming modern farmers

By Anton Sudarisman

BALIKPAPAN, East Kalimantan (JP): Mayang, a Dayak, stared at a vast plot of thriving paddy.

"It's a miracle," uttered the dark-skinned, slight man.

"This area was covered with weeds and wild plants several months ago. Now it has turned into promising land, giving crops to my family and other members of the group," he said, proudly pointing at the yellowish crop covering 20 hectares of land he cleared just six months ago.

Mayang is the head of the Mandiri Group, a farming group consisting of 22 Dayak families and a few Kutai families who have settled in Keraitan, 70 kilometers north of Bontang, East Kalimantan. With the help of a local coal mining company, the group has learned how to cultivate the land in a modern way.

"Before we learned about modern agriculture, most of us were hunters; others were slash-and-burn farmers," Pungkas, another member of the Mandiri Group, said.

Pungkas also explained that animals and fertile land had become rare in the area. "Our life as hunters became harder than ever, so we believed we had to start a new life," he said.

Mayang and his friends decided to learn how to farm as settlers in October 1998. In the first three months, the group cleared 15 hectares of unused land. After that was done, they learned how to plant seeds, use fertilizer and pesticide with the help of a facilitator from a Jakarta-based non-governmental organization.

"They started from nothing, so we had to teach them the whole process, while maintaining independency," said Widodo, an agronomist who facilitates the group.

In fact, the Mandiri Group is not the only Dayak and Kutai group learning to farm as settlers in Sangatta, East Kalimantan. In the past one and a half years, 12 similar groups have been set up in the area. Most of the groups consist of indigenous people, mostly Dayaks and Kutais. Others are descendants of immigrants from South Sulawesi who have lived in the vicinity for generations.

According to Salehudin, a Kutai who coordinates the project, contacting and attracting groups into settled farming was not an easy task. Besides being scattered miles away, these groups mainly kept to themselves and had had very little contact with outsiders.

"We first asked them if they were interested in having a settled life. We told them we were ready to teach them new skills and help with basic things such as seeds and pesticides. But after all, it's up to them to decide things," Salehudin said.

The change from hunting or slash-and-burn farming to modern agriculture has been a success as well as an exciting experience for most of the groups.

"Irrigation, different kinds of seeds, fertilizers, all are new to us. I'm very interested in learning about them," said Mayang.

After six months of hard work, his group is now waiting for its first harvest.

"We have also opened up another eight hectares to grow vegetables on," Mayang added.

Another success story comes from the Tirta Jaya Group, a group located 20 km from the Mandiri Group. This group has had two successful rice harvests since October 1998. With 100 families as active members, they now have 60 hectares of paddy fields.

"We also have started a cooperative, where everybody can put in or borrow money," said Mustafa, a Kutai. Mustafa is proud that he can plant three times a year instead of once, as he used to.

For some other groups, however, the process of learning farming has been somewhat painstaking.

"I used to go out to hunt and come home with one or two deers, something I could eat or sell. Now I have to carefully prepare the land and wait for four months before I get a result," Sengka of the Mandiri Group says. "You have to be very patient to be a good farmer," he added.

Sengka said he and his friends once became frustrated by the slow process of farming and quit after two months of land preparation and planting. Almost all of them chose to return to their old way of life. They went out hunting again, leaving the farm to become overrun with weeds and wild plants.

"But we finally returned to farming because one of our friends had looked after his farm well, and his paddy field had thrived. Then we started to believe that settled farming was good for us," he said.

The hardest challenge, however, is nature. the Asam Payang Group, which has Kutai members, has been deeply frustrated by rats and floods.

"Both took away our first harvest," said Abdullah, the group leader, obviously pained.

Flood has also become a big problem for another group, which converted 25 hectares of forest into a vast rice field.

"We didn't realize that a nearby river could wash away our paddy. Our rice has gone," Arbial, a Kutai who heads the Benua Etam Group, said sadly.

These problems, however, have failed to stop the groups from trying new ways of farming. Asam Payang and Benua Etam groups have opened up new areas and each has planted cacao trees on 20 hectares of land.

"Rats won't eat cacao," Arbial said.

Mayang, Pungkas, Abdullah and other Dayaks as well as Kutais in East Kalimantan believe that modern farming is very promising. When you visit them, they will enthusiastically tell you how they have turned from being hunters to farmers.