Wonosobo residents rely heavily on tobacco farming

Wonosobo residents rely heavily on tobacco farming

Text and pictures by Ati Nurbaiti

WONOSOBO, Central Java (JP): With August approaching a fervent
hope is spreading among tobacco growers in villages across
Wonosobo.

If the harvest is good this year a daughter could be married
off and another child sent to school.

The long drought last year brought too much sun. A proportion
of the harvest was sold for Rp 5,000 (35 U.S. cents) per kilogram
but much of it fetched only Rp 3,000 or lower.

Now the problem is too much rain. Heavy rains were still
falling every afternoon in early July and farmers were sighing.

"I'll lose three baskets at least," said a farmer in
Pagerluhur in the Pagerejo village, Kertek district. He pointed
to a field of green plants with their bottom leaves yellowing
from too much rain.

Samiadji is among the richest farmers here with a plot of
about one hectare -- most have less than a quarter of that --
yielding barely 50 kgs per year.

Big buyers include cigarette manufacturers Sampoerna, Djarum
and Bentoel.

He said tobacco plant seeds, producing up to 24 leaves a tree,
are much better than those of years gone by when plants had fewer
than 12 leaves. However, today's plants are far less resistant to
hazards.

Farmers here feel yields may not be sufficient this year to
repay their invested capital given the likely bad crops.

The middlemen and factories seem to hold immense power: they
set prices and determine whether or not to buy crops. Farmers are
familiar with the rule that the total weight of each basket of
finely shredded and dried tobacco leaves is reduced by two
kilograms -- the weight of each empty basket -- but some say
factories and middlemen deduct even more.

On the other hand factory managers and middlemen say they have
a hard time selecting the required types of tobacco for different
cigarettes.

"If offers (tobacco prices) go too low we might as well burn
the crops," says Samiadji, adding this is what he did last year.
Farmers feel too much energy goes into the planting, staying up
at night to process the dried leaves, fermenting them and finely
chopping them at the risk of cut fingers -- only to suffer poor
prices, if not rejection.

Production costs are Rp 150,000 per 30-kg basket. Each can
yield anywhere between Rp 100,000 or nothing, if the product is
rejected.

Wonosobo is only one of the areas supplying the cigarette
industry. Statistics reveal that last year it included 5,667
hectares of tobacco, much less than Temanggung, also in Central
Java with 20,284 hectares.

In Pagerejo village here, residents revealed the increasingly
severe hardships they are facing and their thin hopes of a good
harvest.

Few eat rice; they say they are used to eating "corn rice",
finely pounded and boiled corn. The reason is financial; at Rp
1,500 per kg, corn is about half the price of uncooked rice.

But the preparation of corn rice, eaten only with meagerly
flavored vegetables, takes much more time and energy.

"It (corn rice) stays in the stomach longer," says Tumpuk, a
maid, "everyone here works so hard." Besides the pounding of
corn, she is referring to the scavenging for and carrying of
firewood, working in the fields, feeding cattle, taking crops to
market -- all this by walking up and down steep paths.

Meanwhile, prices at Wonosobo market are rising daily by
amounts comparable with the metropolitan areas -- frying oil Rp
8,500 per liter, onions Rp 10,000 per kg and pepper Rp 100,000
per kg -- if you can find it.

Cassava disappearing from the fields is nothing new. "Now even
rice vanishes from right within the house," a farmer said.

The sense of despair over the crisis became more apparent when
nearby villagers held a demonstration at a private tea plantation
in the same district. Security personnel at the scene did not
prevent the villagers from chopping down several tea trees.

It was not clear whether the villagers, claiming the Dutch
colonial rulers had rented their land and never gave it back,
were acting on their own free will. "Such a thing has never
happened before," one farmer said.

Despite the rain, the only real hope is, again, tobacco.
Oblivious of international campaigns against smoking, farmers
only know that factory's representatives still scour the
mountainous area hunting for the best harvests.

Besides, "we have been growing tobacco since the days of the
Majapahit kingdom (in the 14th century)," which included the
tobacco areas, said Samiadji, 85.

Samiadji's wife recalls good harvests when, "if you entered
the fields your clothes soon became black from the nicotine in
the leaves".

Siswowihardjo, another villager, says in his small house, "The
yield of the tobacco crop is still a riddle."

For his family, which includes two daughters and
grandchildren, there is not much more to rely on as his son-in-
law, a construction worker in Bandung, has not sent any news, let
alone money, recently. Siswowihardjo has heard of the troubles in
the construction business.

Some villagers are lucky enough to work for rich farmers for
Rp 4,000 a day. Others keep chicken, to sell the meat or eggs, or
a goat or cow of another villager on a profit-sharing basis.

The keeper will seek grass for a year to feed the cow. When it
is sold, he will get 50 percent of the profit.

This is usually in the region of Rp 300,000 for a year's work;
cow cost around Rp 400,000 and are sold for Rp 1 million.

Women sell mendong leaf mats; a large one, that might take two
weeks to weave, goes for Rp 20,000 at the most.

Only one or two residents sell things like porridge at Rp 100
per plastic container. "Money lasts a long time here, there's
nothing to buy," a visitor said.

Fair

But when the tobacco harvest approaches, usually every August,
outsiders perceive the villagers as rich people. Traders come
from various regions, bypass the Wonosobo market and go straight
up to the villages on the slopes of Mount Sindoro and Mount
Sumbing, and the place suddenly becomes a fairground.

"Cupboards! Mattresses!" says a farmer quoting furniture
hawkers. Sellers from the renown shoe center in Cibaduyut, West
Java, garment sellers and embroiderers from Tasikmalaya, and
traders selling tape recorders and television sets, also struggle
up the hill with their wares in hired cars .

"Once a truck full of motorcycles headed up here, they were
ordered by residents of a single village nearby," Samiadji's wife
said. They seem unconcerned that the bikes will be sold again a
few months later at a much lower price to get capital for the
next harvest season.

"What's important is that the people have got the taste of
riding around on their own bikes, the result of their hard work,"
she said.

Other tobacco growers resort to borrowing money from the
factories and middlemen, knowing full well they will be bound to
sell only to their borrowers at whatever price.

When harvests fail, those working for rich farmers will at
least still get something for their sweat. "A new sarong for the
man, a new kebaya blouse for the woman," farmer Samiadji said.

There is a tiny profit in growing tobacco even if the harvest
fails, he says. As the land has been fertilized it is good enough
to grow other crops like corn and vegetables, at least for their
own kitchens.

So when the fair disappears; the cycle begins again, and the
farmers begin hoping for the best for next year.