Tsunami wrecks fields, livelihoods for farmers

Tsunami wrecks fields, livelihoods for farmers

Beth Gardiner, Associated Press, Ladong, Aceh

A small, grassy field that once held 200 broad-leafed banana
trees now has only a dozen, and their owner is sure they will die
soon.

Last month's tsunami swept away coastal crops and poisoned
fields with salt, leaving tens of thousands of farmers homeless
and snatching away the livings they scraped from the soil.

The ocean waters destroyed rice paddies, chili patches and
coconut groves in Indonesia's devastated Aceh province, and
agricultural experts say that while the damage will not lead to
people starving, it could be two years or more before anything
will grow in the damaged soil.

Razali, the 30-year-old owner of the wrecked banana grove,
hauled long wooden posts on his shoulder, walking barefoot
through the mud to fix the barbed-wire fences that kept goats
away from his trees.

He hopes to plant again on the field his parents also tended.
But for now, he's living in a tent camp with his wife and
daughter, earning Rp 30,000 (US$3.30) a day when he can get work
picking coconuts, a job that used to supplement his main income
but is now all he has left.

"Because of the salt, nothing can grow, even the grass can't
grow," he said. Razali's coastal field is pocked with brown dirt
and bare stumps where his trees used to be, and much of his sugar
cane is gone too.

Rene Suter, emergency coordinator for the UN Food and
Agriculture Organization, said that while the tsunami damage
wouldn't significantly affect Indonesia's overall agricultural
output, it was devastating for the farmers affected.

While a small number might be able to begin replanting in the
next growing season, which starts in April, the vast majority
will have to wait two years or longer, Suter said.

Salty soil kills plants by preventing them from absorbing the
water they need. The Dec. 26 tsunami also washed away valuable
topsoil and nutrients that took years to accumulate, meaning that
even after the salt is gone, the land will be less fertile than
before.

Most fields are littered with debris and some have been washed
away altogether.

"It requires a massive cleanup operation," Suter said.
Preliminary surveys estimated about 37,500 hectares of Aceh's
agricultural fields were damaged by the tsunami, plus about
12,000 hectares of small-scale gardens, he said.

Suter had no specific estimate of how many farmers' fields
were destroyed but said the combined number of households whose
livelihoods in farming and fishing were wiped out was about
100,000.

Along the stretch of coast where Razali's banana grove was
destroyed, east of the provincial capital Banda Aceh, about 80
percent of people were farmers before the tsunami, said Jakob, an
agriculture ministry official visiting the area.

Thirty-two farms in the district were destroyed and 160
spared, he said. Only those close to the shore were hit; in this
area the tsunami swept in about 100 meters from the sea, although
in other areas it traveled as far as five kilometers (three
miles) inland.

Many of the farmers from Ladong and Lamno villages are now
living in a dusty roadside tent camp.

Most just barely eked out a living before the tsunami and few
know when they'll work again. They lost homes, cows, goats and
tools in addition to their fields. Also destroyed were ponds and
pools where many farmers raised fish.

"On the top of the soil, there's a lot of salt (and sand),"
said Amin Jusuf, 45, who lost his chili and banana fields. "It's
white like snow. There's no grass anymore ... so I can't feed my
cattle."

Suter said the amount of time it will take to wash salt from
fields depends on how long the seawater stayed. In some cases it
washed away within hours. In others, where debris clogged
drainage systems, it's still sitting nearly a month later.

Cleanup teams will have to flood fields with water to flush
the salt away, he said. The process could take two years in many
places and for some it will be even longer before irrigation
systems and barriers separating one paddy from the next can be
rebuilt.

Many farmers will need help in the interim, Suter said.
Jakob said the government intended to provide it and was
considering giving coastal farmers parcels of land on higher
ground.

Some are determined to go back to their land, no matter how
long it takes.

"Maybe it will grow, maybe not," said Razali, the banana
farmer. "But I want to try."