Making palm-fiber ropes a lifeline for many

By Agus Maryono

CILACAP, Central Java (JP): The old woman was relaxed while she worked a mass of palm fiber in her hands. Her right hand twisted the mass, her left hand flattened it and then pulled it hard so that a roll of fiber, the size of her own body, was pulled little by little to form a twisted shape of rope the size of a palm leaf rib.

Once in awhile a drop of liquid the color of fresh blood spurted out of her old mouth. This came from the areca nut she was munching while she was working. Areca nut chewing is a habit the local elderly females have while doing things, just like smoking is for men.

Mbah (Grandma) Daroji, 70, is only one of hundreds of traditional palm-fiber ropemakers in Sikampuh and Gentasari villages in Kroya subdistrict, Cilacap, Central Java. These rural women earn a living while their husbands, mostly farm laborers, are out of work or earn too little to support the family because of the crisis.

They have been making traditional palm-fiber rope since the 1970s. Nowadays, they have intensified production because of the crisis's pressure and the housewives in these two villages make rope from morning to night. They generally start after completing the cooking for the family. They make ropes individually and do not form any particular working group. They keep the earnings for themselves, of course.

Palm-fiber ropes made in Sikampuh and Gentasari are usually used to tie roofs, made of plaited bamboo pieces and locally known as rangken. All over Cilacap and Banyumas, particularly in rural areas, there are still a lot of houses with roofs of this kind.

"These palm-fiber ropes are superior to plastic ones in that they are stronger and more resistant to water and heat," said Dulyasir, 55, a resident of Sikampuh.

He said it would not be possible to use plastic rope, which is not heat resistant, to make rangken. "Palm-fiber rope can last many years. They are as strong as rangken itself," he added.

To make the rope, palm fiber is obtained from a number of border areas between West and Central Java. It is usually men who gather the palm fiber.

"Not every husband leaves the village to find the fibers. In Sikampuh, there are several people who usually collect them from other areas and then sell them to the ropemakers," said Dulyasir.

He also collects palm fiber in the areas mentioned. Usually, there are seven of them, he said.

"We go in groups of three or four and are usually away for two or three weeks. When we come home we sell the fibers to local ropemakers," said Dulyasir, who claimed that in one trip he could bring home hundreds of sheets of palm fiber each measuring an average of 2 meters by 0.5 meter to 1 meter. Then they are rolled up with each bundle containing 3 to 4 sheets. "Each roll is sold at Rp 7,500 (US$1.10)," he added.

He began to find palm fiber away from home in 1980 and has since been doing the job regularly. Therefore, he said, he was used to spending the night in the middle of a sago palm tree forest from which the fibers were harvested.

"Usually we spend the night in the house of the neighborhood chief or in just anybody's house close to where trees yielding the fibers are found," he said.

"Sometimes we have to sleep in the forest because it is already late. Once we were almost attacked by a boar. Luckily, we were able to escape," he added.

It takes quite awhile to make ropes from sheets of fiber, especially because there are several stages and each stage takes some time to complete. Dulyasir said it takes an average of 10 to 12 days to make rope.

Mbah Daroji told The Jakarta Post that there were three stages in turning palm fiber into rope.

First, coarse fibers and sharp-pointed palm leaf ribs are removed from the sheets. "Unless these are removed, the sheets are difficult to form into rope. Besides, they may cut our hands," said Ibu Demi, another ropemaker.

After all coarse fibers and ribs are removed from the sheets, only the fine fibers are left. The next process is turning these sheets of fine fiber into small twisted forms. These sheets are formed into long rolls and then from one of the two ends a fiber is taken out and twisted with the help of a bamboo instrument called an ikalan. Each twisted piece, which is one half of the rope, is 25 cm long on average. The process is completed when the ikalan is fully covered by twisted pieces of fiber.

"The process for one bundle of fiber will take 2 to 4 days to complete," said Demi.

After all the sheets are done, the last stage begins. An ikalan is twisted into another to form a rope. "Usually, from one bundle of fiber, which we buy at Rp 7,500, we can have 20 pieces of rope," she said.

One piece of rope is 60 metres long and is sold at between Rp 1,300 and Rp 1,500. "The prices may differ although the length is the same. It all depends on the quality of the rope. Some are good, in that they are well-twisted and formed, while others are not so good," said Dulyasir, who also buys and sells ropes. "I buy ropes from the makers and then I sell them again at the market. Sometimes I hawk them around the villages," he added.

All these women make rope with their own hands. The only instrument they use is the ikalan. They say their earnings are sufficient to make ends meet every day. They spend Rp 7,500 to buy a bundle of fibers and get Rp 30,000 from selling the rope.

"I'm happy with the earnings. I can buy food for the family and pay my children's school fees," said Ibu Demi, who said that she had been doing this job for some 20 years.

The price of fiber in sheets or in rope form is quite stable. "Before the crisis, I sold one bundle at Rp 6,000 to Rp 7,000. The price increased by Rp 500 only. A piece of rope increased by Rp 200 in price. The price used to be Rp 1,300 and now it is only Rp 1,500," said Dulyasir.

"We have never worried about price hikes. What concerns us is the price of rice which is quite high now. It used to be Rp 900 per kg but now it is Rp 2,500. Luckily, we can make rope. Otherwise, we would not know how to survive," said Ibu Demi.

Dulyasir, spending most of his time as a farm laborer, also considered himself lucky because of the palm-fiber rope business.

"When everything is done in the rice field and we only have to wait for harvest time, we leave home to find sheets of fiber," said Dulyasir, adding that he does it three times a year on average.