Farmers Using Technology to Free Themselves from Chains
Worker prepare unhusked rice before it is milled in Mlaten village, Mijen district, Demak regency, Sunday (7/3).
A diesel engine roared at one corner of Mlaten village, Demak, Central Java. Salafuddin, 41, is all smiles as he takes turns with other farmers to put partially wet unhusked rice into the machine. After suffering from poor prices for unhusked rice for a long time, technology has now provided a new hope for local farmers to be sovereign on their own land.
“Smiles have returned to the faces of local farmers these past three weeks. We can dry unhusked rice faster as we do not have to wait for the sun,” said Salafuddin or Udin, a farmer in Mlate village, Mijen district, Demak regency, on Sunday (5/3/2017).
Previously, farmers like Udin had suffered on their own land. Weather has become increasingly extreme in the past few years. Rainfall increases approaching the harvest season, resulting in more than 30 percent water in unhusked rice.
Locals could only hope that the sun would shine strong enough to help them be free from the shackles of tengkulak (middlemen). Failure to sun-dry unhusked rice for more than a week after harvesting would mean financial losses.
For instance, farmers could harvest 11.5 tons of unhusked rice from land measuring two bau (around 14,000 square meters). The harvest was then brought into a rice mill. According to Udin, the cost to process and transport a harvest could be between Rp 12 million (US$896) and Rp 13 million.
However, as the unhusked rice had a high water content, farmers needed to sun-dry the harvest first for at least seven days. The drying process was managed by two workers with wages of Rp 100,000 per day each. Over seven days, Rp 1.4 million was needed to pay for the two workers. However, in order to fulfill urgent daily needs, farmers were often forced to accept the price determined by middlemen. Udin usually sold 11.5 tons of unhusked rice at Rp 2,000 per kilogram.
The middlemen often said that this was because his harvested unhusked rice had a high water content of between 30 percent and 35 percent.
On paper, in line with the Presidential Instruction No. 5/2015 on food commodity purchasing prices, the price of unhusked rice at the farmers’ level should be Rp 3,700 per kilogram. In normal weather and if the sun-drying process is not interrupted by rain, Udin’s harvest should have brought him Rp 42.5 million.
However, he often relented when the middlemen offered to buy his unhusked rice for Rp 23 million. This means that, in the three-and-a-half-month farming period, he suffered losses of Rp 19.5 million. “Farmers often cried but we didn’t have any power. Farming felt like gambling,” Udin said.
Rice processing machine
Nowadays, a new hope has emerged for the rice farmers in Mlaten village, Mijen district, Demak. The touch of technology introduced by the Bogor Agricultural Institute (IPB)agricultural practitioner Imam Rosyadi has changed his life.
PT Toyota Astra Motor (PT TAM) collaborated with Imam and a few other IPB experts to create an integrated unhusked rice processing machine measuring 10 meters long, 6.5 meters wide and five meters tall. Apart from milling, the machine could also dry unhusked rice.
The machine, which costs Rp 550 million, has a drying basin, a rice cleaning unit, a skin peeler, a husk separator and a weighing unit. At first, the partially wet unhusked rice is put into the basin equipped with a high-speed fan driven by a diesel engine.
The basin can hold between three and four tons of unhusked rice at a time. If the unhusked rice going into the machine has between 20 percent and 25 percent of water, the machine can produce between one ton and 1.2 ton of dried unhusked rice per hour. If the unhusked rice going into the machine has up to 35 percent of water, the machine can produce 3.5 tons in 18 hours.
With the machine, farmers in Mlaten village no longer need to sun-dry their unhusked rice in their backyards or by the road. They only need to buy diesel fuel. “The rice mill can produce a good-quality unhusked rice with a water content of only 14 to 16 percent,” said Imam, who served as an agricultural engineer at a state-owned company for 17 years.
The total cost for drying and milling the unhusked rice with the machine is only Rp 150 per kg, much cheaper than the Rp 400 in conventional milling.
Ever since the milling machine was used, the prices farmers get for their rice in Mlaten village has increased from Rp 7,000 per kg to Rp 12,000 per kg. The prices increase as the machine can reduce risk of damaged unhusked rice to a maximum level of 25 percent.
The machine was constructed between December 2016 and February 2017. Other than Imam, IPB mechanical and biosystem engineering lecturer M. Faiz Syuaib and IPB plant disease and pest expert Suryo Wicaksono were also involved in creating the machine. They supervised the Mlaten village farmers for three months.
Sustainable agricultural education and integrated milling machine maintenance can improve farming production by 50 percent. Nowadays, one hectare of rice field can produce between six and eight tons of harvest. Faiz said that sustainable agriculture that prioritizes the ecosystem, the human population and technology is necessary to achieve high productivity. Local communities and governments must work together to optimize the potential of 34 million hectares of agricultural fields in Central Java.
Village funds
Starting from 2016, all villages, including in Central Java, were eligible for village funds of Rp 675 million on average. In 2017, the government is planning to increase the average amount to Rp 825 million per village. The village funds are generally allocated for roads and building infrastructure.
The Villages, Disadvantaged Regions and Transmigration Ministry’s Central Java village empowerment chief supervisor consultant, Muhammad Hendri Putro, said that village funds should be able to resolve local mid-term and long-term problems.
“For now, Mlaten village farmers are assisted by PT TAM, which was moved to help improve the farmers’ standards of living,” the company’s project division head FransIhutan Budianto said.
“We aim to increase the farmers’ revenues to between Rp 2.7 million and Rp 3 million per month,” Frans said.
PT TAM’s involvement in concocting the Toyota Organic Village program, PT TAM vice president Henry Tanoto said, was due to its concern for the annual post-harvest problems. With corporate social responsibility funds, it is hoped that the program could empower local farming communities.
With their local advantage, farmers are gaining a better understanding of the highly beneficial organic farming. “The creation of environmentally friendly agriculture patterns will have a positive impact on the quality of the environment. Finally, this will create farming communities with sustainable agribusiness management styles,” Henry said on the sidelines of the Toyota Organic Village program launch in Mlaten village, Demak regency, on Wednesday (8/3/2017).
Through the program, the company will involve the Central Java administration and local foundations with expertise in agriculture. The positive impact will be felt not only by the farmers and locals of Malten village, but can also serve as a positive example for other regions.
“We wish to realize a sustainable agriculture pattern that is economically efficient and beneficial, protective of the environment and natural resources and that can improve the farmers’ quality of life,” he said.
(BANU ASTONO)
