Monoculture in Indonesia: Impact and Alternatives:
Case Study on Food Crops at Deli Serdang, North Sumatra

Summary

The agricultural system in Indonesia was good before the coming of the Green Revolution. The farmers grew their crops and cultivated the land in accordance with nature, using natural resources without dependence on external inputs. They had a natural crop diversification and did not cultivate large areas of monocultural crops. Since the coming of the Green Revolution over twenty-five years ago, however, the farmers have been forced or persuaded to monocultural farming methods, with a dramatic loss of crop diversification. Younger farmers do not understand about traditional methods and values, and have come to depend on this type of farming using high external inputs of chemicals and water. However, present day farmers in Indonesia are generally the poorest community of all. The farmers’ holistic understanding of natural science is being lost, and many parties are concerned with rehabilitation of the agriculture system in Indonesia - NGOs, researchers, etc.

The Green Revolution in Indonesia

Before Green Revolution farming practices came to Indonesia, agriculture was based on natural cycles and the farmers’ ability to utilize natural resources - soil fertility, water availability, climate, natural pest control, natural fertilizers, crop diverstiy, etc. The main potential problems which the farmers had to deal with were climate and water availability, factors which are generally beyond human control, but which did not present serious difficulties. The planting system worked well - an annual crop of local rice followed by a second planting of soybeans or corn, or leguminous crops such as peanuts. This system provided a reliable food source for the local communities, and supplementary crops such as caladium, sweet potato, cassava, chafe, sago palm and bread fruit were also readily available. The traditions of protecting nature and supplying food complimented each other well in this indigenous system., and external inputs such as seeds, chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and irrigation were not required.

At the advent of the Green Revolution, the farmers suffered a dual technical and cultural shock. On the technical side, the farmers who had never used High Yield Variety (HYV) seeds or chemicals before suddenly had to change their methods of farming; these new seeds also required large inputs of water which the farmers now often had to purchase. Multiple land usage - mangosteen, mango, jackfruit, other fruits, rice, breadfruit, trees for house construction and other uses, second crops such as cassava, sweet potatoes and other vegetables - were almost all discontinued, as the land had to be leveled for irrigation and devoted primarily to monocropping cash crops for export to pay for the new inputs.

The presence of the new Green Revolution farming methods in Indonesia which were forced on the farmers have resulted in many negative impacts to them:

• a new dependence on water - with the new agricultural methods, the farmers believe that the soil will become like cement if the water supply fails;
• pesticide poisoning: many farmers have become victims of pesticide poisoning. In some cases they died directly in the field and many others became incapacitated. Also, pesticide residues in the soil have killed wildlife and caused water and air pollution;
• new dependence on chemicals, whereas previously the farmers used natural methods of fertilization and pest control;
• dependence on externally provided High Yield Variety seeds;
• loss of important food resources such as caladium, cassava, sweet potatoes, etc.
• loss of plants which provided a natural home for natural enemies of pests;
• the loss of group savings facilities such as community rice banks;
• loss of traditional culture and farming methods, with their holistic adaptation to nature, which are no longer passed on to young generations;
• loss of local varieties of many crops, and genetic diversity;
• loss of the farmers’ natural compass, and the direction to manage their planting season.

After over 25 years of Green Revolution farming practices, many of the farmers are still incapacitated. Their crops are the lowest valued in Indonesia, they have lost their community status, and the former rice fields are now used for other crops.

Reaction of NGOs

Due the above mentioned realties, many NGO groups have begun to work with the farmers to reformulate and rehabilitate the present agricultural system. Their main activities are to return the farmers to their former position of working with nature and to their holistic culture, and to return to them a position of bargaining strength as they try to sell their crops. It is a difficult struggle, however, since the impact of monocultures has been very widespread and difficult to contain. The pressure from the government to change old farming methods to monoculture has resulted in many bad habits on the part of present farmers, and NGOs have faced many difficulties in trying to convince farmers to return to traditional methods, for instance:

• under the heavy influence of ‘top-down’ development, the traditional cultural systems and moral supports of farmers have been destroyed;
• villagers concerned with the environmental problems have only weak voices, and it has been difficult to find local leaders;
• money-oriented farmers have worked hard to provide for their families, but this has resulted in many secondary sectors receiving little attention, such as animal husbandry and utilizing resources to their full potential;
• the government bureaucracy makes NGO work difficult, thus the NGOs have been forced to concentrate on advocacy;
• funds to support NGO work are very limited, and currently they are mainly being spent on agricultural technology;
• Indonesia currently has no wide-based agricultural forum in which NGOs, government officials and researchers can share their ideas and work..

Based on the facts mentioned above, and on what is practically possible, the NGOs concerned with agriculture have collaborated with a number of farmers in various activities:

• retraining and reconsciousness of farmers in many life aspects, primarily in agricultural cultivation systems which are of direct benefit to the farmers, such as rice-rice and rice-second crop methods;
• with the aim to decrease pesticide use gradually to 0% application; peasants join the training and then try the methods at the field level to stop external input application;
• a return to local varieties, which have a better future outlook and whose price can increase at the market;
• to study and relearn local holistic culture to implement among the peasants;
• to pioneer and set up a pesticide-free market in Indonesia.

To implement the above strategies and others, the PAN Foundation has established an integrated programme, with the following timetable:

• 1985-90: To extract information on traditional methods from older farmers, and to publicize the data through the mass media; to make a suitable module for training the younger farmers and then to do field trials with the farmers, both individually and in groups;
• 1990-1995: Mass training for the farmers on farming without pesticides or chemical fertilizers, TOT (Training of Trainers) for the Indonesian field workers concerned with environmental and sustainable agriculture; module development for the so-trained farmers to become the facilitators for other farmers and to support the environmental and sustainable agriculture model and try it out; to develop the community potenial to work for their own prosperity and welfare.
• 1995-2000: Mass training of farmers in the rural area and development of Indonesian NGOs. The aim is to realize environmental and sustainable agriculture, to strengthen the NGOs networking capacity, to research and develop agricultural diversity through the family farm; to develop specific, local agricultural products of North Sumatra Province; to pioneer local and national organic markets; and to develop and set up an organic consumer’s association in the larger cities.

The participative method is being developed through the PRA (Participatory Rural Appraisal) method. The model of a training module for a season long planting was completed and revised in collaboration with the related research institutes, to achieve the above goals.

The Field Obstacles

Some of the obstacles faced by the PAN Foundation personnel as it tries to develop environmental and sustainable agriculture are:

• many multi-national companies already control much of the farmers’ input through integrated infrastructure, supplying everything from seeds to marketing;
• there are only a limited number of NGOs concerned with agriculture and the environment; furthermore, their roles are constrained by the large areas to be covered.
• limited funds to expand the work in Indonesia.