At Peace with Nature, Making a Living without Greed

Kompas/Cornelius Helmy Herlambang

Farmers harvest guava in Cidadap kampung, Padalarang village, Padalarang district, West Bandung regency, West Java, Thursday (16/3). Most guava farmers in Didadap are former limestone miners of the Padalarang Karst area. Their incomes now are much larger.

Living on disaster-prone land forces people to adapt to nature. Some farmers in Padalarang, West Bandung regency, have proven that the slopes of the landslide-prone hills they live on can provide them with sustainable living.

The guava harvest period has just passed. For Atep, 43, this is an opportunity to breathe freely. On Thursday (16/3), he looked relaxed picking some of the remaining guavas on the tree. A bamboo pole with a basket on one end is the main tool used to harvest his fruits.

“I am only able to breath freely now. Up until last month, I had been working from the morning till the afternoon picking guavas. I can harvest up to 8 tons a day,” he said.

Atep is one of around 40 guava farmers in Cidadap village, Padalarang district. They have been managing more than 2 hectares of land surrounded by rocky (karst) hills for the past 20 years. The guava tree (Psidium guajava) was chosen because its roots have the strength to withstand a landslide, are able to store water and suited to grow in the barren and rocky area.

The land used to be dry and had very few trees and so the choice of work for the locals was limited. Some people worked merely as limestone miners, including Atep. In the 1990s, he stopped mining and went with Abah Asep, 74, to become a guava farmer in Cidadap, which he has continued to do since.

The mining of limestone and marble at Padalarang Karst has been done rampantly since the 1980s. Crowbars and backhoes chip away at the 22.7-hectare land. Black smoke continues to puff from the chimneys of limestone processing factories, which produce 700,000 to 1 million tons of processed limestone per day. Some of the products are exported abroad.

Like Atep, Abah Asep also used to make a living by swinging hammers and crowbars as a miner. Without any concern for the safety aspect of working on a landslide-prone limestone cliff, they work for a wage of Rp 15,000 a day.

This continued until eventually, nature’s brutality stopped their activity. A landslide hit a limestone cliff they worked on in 1987. Abah survived. However, a big block of limestone seemed to demand a victim: the fingers of his right foot were broken. His saving was all spent to pay for the hospital treatment. “When I was healthy, my energy was squeezed out by my boss. But when I was injured, the boss did not care. Since then, I stopped mining,” he said.

Being unemployed meant that Abah Asep had zero income. Abah, who is an elementary school graduate, found it difficult to land jobs. One day, Oom, a fellow former mining colleague, offered him a job of taking care of a guava plantation. “I diligently participated in Bandung Agriculture Agency training to learn how to plant guava,” he said.

His efforts bore fruit. The guava plants flourished. From merely having a few square meters of land, he now has a guava plantation on a land of 1 hectare.

His success slowly attracted other former miners in the business. Abah was not stingy in sharing his knowledge. Some locals who did not own any land were allowed to work on his guava plantation. Now, Abah has four workers. They are paid Rp 40,000-Rp 75,000 a day based on the type of work done. “The pay is three to five times more than that earned from mining,” he said.

Head of the Care for Citatah Karst Youth Forum, Deden Syarif Hidayat, said the success of the Padalarang guava farmers sends out a positive message for people living in karst areas. Income can keep flowing in without having to damage the environment.

Planting coffee

Having been victims of landslides, the people at the foot of Mount Puntang in Kolelega village, Banjaran district, Bandung regency, have also had to employ a strategy to get the best out of nature. They plant coffee in the area. Coffee beans are now their source of income. The roots of coffee plants, meanwhile, helps to reduce the chances of landslide.

Some locals switched from planting vegetables to planting coffee. Now, the strong roots of coffee trees planted by 300 coffee farmers on a 600-hectare land protects the people from the dangers of a landslide.

This came following the efforts of Ayi Soetedja Soemali, 52, who explained to the locals the benefits of coffee plants. Ayi patiently taught the farmers what to do in the nursery, maintenance and post-harvest stages. Ayi’s success led his coffee to be given an award at the Specialty Coffee Association of America Expo in the US in 2016, which helped promote the Mount Puntang coffee to the farmers.

The farmers of Mount Puntang coffee started feeling the sweetness of their decision to befriend nature. On 1 hectare, farmers can plant up to 1,000 coffee trees. At the time of harvest, one tree can produce 1-2 kilograms of coffee beans. The price of dry coffee beans is also quite high at Rp 15,000 per kilogram.

Against land conversion

Around 28 kilometers away from Padalarang, the people of Cidadap Girang village, Ledeng subdistrict, Bandung city, also try to protect their land from land conversion. On Sunday (19/3), they expressed their anxiety through the 2017 Gedong Cai Festival.

The people voiced their rejection of the planned hotels and resort development around the area. They have also been consistent in calling for trees to be planted around water source.

Befriending nature makes the people living in disaster-prone regions now have plenty of choices in life. They make a living without being greedy.