Mount Merapi farmer lives organically with nature

By Des Price

MT. MERAPI, Central Java (JP): A windy, narrow road leads up to the hamlet of Muntilan, which is within a stone's throw from Mount Merapi's slopes, and is a peaceful rural setting where life for most of the locals goes on as though they were far removed from any dangers that nature may pose for human life.

Rice-growing is an important part of the economy here and one of Muntilan's smallholders is more concerned about the man-made environmental affects on crops and the soil rather than the vapor and lava that periodically spurts from Indonesia's most active volcano.

Pak Kahar, was raised on the land and has worked as a farmer for most of his life.

His conventional farming days, which started in the seventies, with the advent of the so-called "green revolution" -- a term which may be considered a misnomer -- typified by hybrid rice crops and dependence on artificial fertilizers.

Until five years ago, Pak Kahar asked few questions about farming methods, and like many of his neighbors, he planted just two cash crops -- rice and chilis. The rice was a hybrid variety that relies on artificial fertilizers to ensure its growth and productivity, and pesticides to keep it free from predators.

At this time, he heard about a seminar on organic farming that had been planned in Yogyakarta and he decided to attend. The seminar sparked his interest in returning to the ways of his nenek moyang (forefathers) whereby people live closer to nature and consider the cyclical pattern of events of growth, interaction and decomposition.

Enthused and enlightened, he left his village and went to Bogor to study organic farming -- sponsored by a church official called Romo (Father) Agatu. Upon returning to his own, rural retreat, he got down to work on his land, immediately putting to practice what he had learned, such as companion planting.

Uprooting some of his former crops, he started to grow crops that assist other crops such as beans, which, through their roots, add valuable nitrogen to the soil. His new focus is on what is called multi-cropping, meaning that his land will become covered with dozens of different crops, thereby, amongst other things, reducing the stronghold of pests and allowing their natural predators to play their role without the interference of chemicals in the process. To this end, he has planted crops such as lettuce, beans and peanuts, which he says, all support each other.

With one eye on Mount Merapi's cone and the other on Pak Kahar's garden, a group of visitors are shown around his small, but impressive smallholding. Escorting visitors to the edge of his garden, with a glint in his eye and a mischievous smile, he took the lid off a barrel full of his liquid fertilizer supplement.

"In here, I put leaves and plants from the garden as well as dung from pigs and cows; I also add pigs' urine." As well as this he includes bacteria, procured from the stomachs of cows, that helps to break down organic matter and thereby speed up the decomposition process.

On the soil around the plants on his land, he has applied mulch, which consists of leaves, bark and compost that help to protect plants from encroaching weeds, retains moisture and adds nutrients to the soil.

Although Pak Kahar, after gaining enlightenment, immediately switched over to organic growing methods, many farmers reach this ecological nirvana by a slower, more gradual process, often out of necessity, as the soil becomes devoid of nutrients, and initial yields when switching back to organic methods may be very low.

There are some nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that assist farmers to do this and in Yogyakarta, a consortium of NGOs and individuals make up "Konsorsium Masyarakat Fair Trade". With financial and educational assistance from Oxfam, an international fair trade aid organization, the consortium provides training and support to farmers who have switched to organic farming or who are in the process of transition. Farmers in this area may join a group and get training and support in a variety of ways.

In the village of Ganti Warno, in the regency of Klaten, which incidentally, was the starting point for the green revolution in Indonesia, groups of farmers meet to discuss practical issues, such as the price they will sell their rice, together with other more general concerns such as the environment, human rights and gender issues.

At the home of Pak Wening, who is a field officer for an NGO called Mitra Tani (Farmers' Partners), the farmers meet regularly to engage in dialogue and monitor their progress toward their ultimate aim of becoming completely organic. None of the groups use chemical pesticides: Pak Wening explained that there are alternatives: "Our pest management systems involve having different harvest times achieved by different planting times. We avoid mono-crop farming and plant other, different crops such as beans, cucumbers or tomatoes."

Of the ten farmers' groups, four now farm using only organic methods while the other six use between 10 to 50 percent of the chemicals they used previously and are close to achieving complete organic farming.

Fair prices

Farmers like Pak Kahar supply Suharni, a shop in Yogyakarta (featured in The Jakarta Post on Feb. 19, 2001) that sells organic rice and has experimented with selling other products. What makes fair trade possible is customer willingness to pay about 15 percent extra for rice that contains no potentially harmful chemical residues and is bought from farmers who are members of organizations that attempt to ensure that workers receive fair pay for their produce.

Many organic farmers rode through the economic crisis relatively well and Pak Kahar delights in the fact that he switched to organic farming two years prior to the event, which shook the nation with the volatility of his nearby "fire mountain".