Restoring Critical Lands
The faces of M Arif, 42, and his wife were filled with joy on Saturday (19/8), as they showed the Black Madras rice that had just been harvested in Pitusunggu village,Ma’rang district, Pangkajene and Islands Regency, South Sulawesi.
Part of the paddy fields is green; another part is a purple-black sea of Black Madras rice. At first glance, the Black Madras paddy looks as if they were burned. "This is the first time I’ve planted Black Madras. Colleagues from the Blue Forest Foundation and agricultural extension workers introduce me to this rice variety. The results have turned out to be good," said Arif.
Arif said the price of Black Madras rice is much higher than regular rice, at Rp 20,000 per kilogram compared to only Rp 8,000 per kilogram for regular rice. Black Madras rice is believed to be good for the health. The Maros Agriculture Research Agency provided the seeds, but farmers have also been taught to produce and harvest seeds themselves.
The paddy field where the Black Madras has been planted is also used as a fish farm. During the rainy season, when the ponds contain water, Arif filled them with milk fish and tilapia fry. After about two months, some of the ponds are sown with rice seeds. As soon as the fish is harvested, the ponds are dried out and planted with rice seedlings for cultivating until harvest season.
Rice and aquaculture farmers Usman, 40, and Saharuddin, 39, also employ the same method in Labakkang district, Pangkajene Islands regency. On their lands, the paddy and tilapia are cultivated in a single area. The paddy field is situated in the middle of the fish farm, surrounded by a 1-meter-wide gutter that separates it from the farm ponds. They cultivate shrimp in other ponds.
Arif, Usman and Saharuddin all use organic fertilizer in their paddy fields and farm ponds. The fertilizer is made from organic household waste, such as leftover food, vegetable scraps, leaves and fish, which is mixed with rice water and sugar for fermenting.
The result is liquid organic fertilizer, or MOL (local microorganism). To make compost, they combine leaves and grass with with cow and goat manure, and the mixture is left to ferment naturally.
The lands now managed by Arif, Usman, Saharuddin, and other residents to grow rice and farm fish were once critical lands and abandoned farm ponds. Some lands had been unproductive for more than 20 years.
Located along the coast of the Makassar Strait and depending on pumped water, many rice and aquaculture farmers were initially desperate to improve their lands. Many people left their villages to open fish farms in other areas, such as Kalimantan and Gorontalo.
Land restoration
In the midst of their despair, the Blue Forest Foundation (formerly Mangrove Action Project) arrived in 2010, to assist local residents in restoring their lands. Not many believed in the idea to restore the critical lands into subsistence farms. "At that time,much of the abandoned lands were not arable. If farmers forced their use, the results of their ponds were far from expectations," said Ratna Fadilah, one of the founders of the Blue Forest Foundation.
The villagers’ skepticism did not make Ratna and her colleagues give up. They continued their efforts patiently until a number of housewives changed their minds. One of these was Sitti Rahma, 38, Arif\'s wife.
"My yard was no longer used for farming. Besides being dry, the land was sandy. Today, all our basic needs, from rice to vegetables can be harvested from my own land. They are also safe [to eat], as they are cultivated using organic fertilizer," said Sitti.
The yard was used to grow not only a variety of vegetables and fruits, but also rice during the heavy rains. Nearly all the plants she grew were healthy, which motivated other villagers to tryout the method. Meanwhile, Sitti and members of her group introduced organic subsistence farming to several other villages.
Saharuddin and Usman initially did not believe that critical lands could be restored. The success of a local village housewife in restoring her yard motivated them. "Before, when we filled the ponds with 20,000 juvenile shrimp, it was fortunate if 20 of them survived. Usually within one or two months, the shrimp would redden and die. Now, when we stock 20,000 juvenile shrimp, we can produce more than 100 kilograms of adult shrimp. The shrimp are also large, with one kilogram containing 70 shrimp," said Saharuddin, whose land had been abandoned for over 17 years.
Saharuddin and his fellow aquaculture farmers can harvest shrimp three times a year. During the rainy season, they utilize the rainfall, and during the dry season, they use pump water. Today, the price of shrimp is Rp 70,000 per kilogram. Saharuddin produces 100 kilograms of shrimp in a single harvest from a pond measuring 50 are (0.5 hectare) and makes Rp 7 million. In comparison, only Rp 1.5 million in capital is needed for each shrimp pond.
The villagers’ success in restoring their critical lands cannot be separated from the Blue Forest Foundation’s field school. At the start of the planting season or the season for stocking fry and juvenile shrimp, the villagers routinely gather at the field school. There, they discuss and observe the natural, environmental and climatic conditions. "We observe and study the development of the rice, fish and shrimp, including seeing if any factor can help speed their development or if others could be natural predators. All the rice and aquaculture farmers are actively involved,” said Ratna.
The foundation always trials a non-organic rice farming and aqua culture project in an adjacent area, so that the results can be compared easily. A number of the non-organic trials were marked by the mass death of fish and shrimp, but the organic rice and aqua culture farms showed consistent development.
Pangkajene Islands is one of the regencies that has become a center of fish and shrimp aquaculture, with a potential for over 10,000 hectares of farm ponds. During the 1998-1999 financial crisis, export commodities, especially shrimp, experienced a boom, so many of the regency’s residents established and developed fish farms. However, the excessive use of chemical fertilizers saturated and damaged the farms and their surrounding lands.
Now, part of the abandoned,critical lands have been restored and become fertile once again. This transformation has opened the eyes of the residents to renewed hope. Aquaculture farmers from this area are frequently invited by other regions to share their success story.