Despite working in the agriculture sector, they are the group most prone to food price increase. This is a disaster.
By
MUKHAMAD KURNIAWAN
·6 minutes read
Kompas/Totok Wijayanto
Nurhayati winnows rice, accompanied by her mother, Kasturi, in front of their shop in Kertanegara village, Haurgeulis district, Indramayu, West Java, Tuesday (14/11). They have experienced failed harvest a number of times because of pest attacks.
Sijan, 76, has vast rice fields, totaling 3.75 hectares, spread in three locations in Haurgeulis, Indramayu regency, West Java. He can plant paddy twice and harvest 40 tons of rice a year. Nevertheless, it is difficult for him to fulfill his family’s food needs.
Nurhayati, 32, the youngest of Sijan’s four children, was winnowing rice at the family home’s front yard in Kertanegara village, Haurgeulis, in November. Her eyes carefully combed the rice on the winnower to find any small rocks, weevils or chaffs, which she then threw away easily.
As the rice was freed from polluters, it looked cleaner. However, Nurhayati still found many broken husks. Also, the rice was in varying hues. “This is a mixture of raskin [rice for the poor] and rice for local shops. It’s half and half. It tastes less good if it is not mixed,” she said.
On-paper calculations showed that Sijan should have had a surplus of rice production. His six family members consume an average of 30 kilograms of rice a month of 360 kilograms a year. Assuming that Sijan’s fields produce 40 tons of dried unhusked rice (GKP) a year, equal to 20 tons of rice, Sijan should have enjoyed a surplus of 19.64 tons a year.
This calculation, however, exists only on paper. In reality, Sijan’s harvests have plummeted in the past three seasons. During the harvest season in July 2017, for instance, Sijan could only harvest 3 tons of unhusked rice from his fields. This is worse than in the previous two harvest seasons. Under normal conditions, Sijan can harvest 20 tons of rice from his fields. “I can’t break even. I am in debt. This is all because of klowor,” Sijan said.
Klowor is the name given by local farmers for rice ragged stunt. The rice ragged stunt virus (RRSV) usually comes along with the brown planthopper. Farmers are deeply frightened of this combination of planthopper and RRSV due to its destructive power on crops.
Many farmers in Haurgeulis and Anjatan (in Indramayu) and in Compreng and Cipunagara (in Subang) suffer from the same fate as Sijan. They have worked hard and spent much time and money to cure their crops but their harvests still plummet.
An investigation and field research by Bogor Institute of Agriculture crop protection department from February to July 2017 showed that RSSV and brown planthopper infested rice fields in at least 30 regencies in Java, Bali and Lampung. In many locations, the infestation began two to four seasons ago.
Nevertheless, the Agriculture Ministry said things were still fine and that the RSSV and brown planthopper infestation were under control. This year’s rice production is said to reach 81.3 million tons of milled unhusked rice (GKG), an increase of 2.7 percent from last year’s 79.1 million tons of GKG.
Depending on rastra
Bug infestation spells doom for village economy including for Sijan’s family. As they are still deep in debt and need to feed themselves, another planting season has arrived and they need money to replant their fields. Other than unpaid loans, only hope is left. “Hopefully, things will be okay this planting season,” Sijan prayed.
Sijan’s wife Kasturi, 63, said she hoped she could help her husband by selling foodstuff. She has a simple shop from which she sells food ingredients, such as eggs, salted fish, various herbs, soap, toothpaste and snacks. However, the village’s plummeting harvest has also impacted her business.
“Many local farmers suffer from failed harvests. My goods are left unsold. I still have customers but many ask me if they can pay later. I am still in debt at the production center kiosk,” Kasturi said.
Kasturi said, according to her own calculations, her husband had shelled out up to Rp 17.5 million in the last planting season. This figure does not include workers’ wage as only she and her husband work on their field. They prepare the seedbed, sow the seeds, dam the field and take care of the crops by themselves. They have sold 13 goats and dozens of chickens and ducks to pay debts and have more money to fund their fields. Nevertheless, they still have Rp 6 million of debts.
Kasturi said her revenue from the shop was not even enough to pay for her family’s daily meals, let alone to pay back loans or to buy farming needs. On normal days, she can get Rp 300,000 of daily gross revenue from her shop. Now, she can only get half of it.
In a “calamitous” time like they are in, they depend on the government’s rice social assistance (beras sejahtera or rastra) program. In the program, Sijan’s family should have received a quota of 15 kilograms of rice each month at Rp 1,600 per kilogram.
However, as is commonly found in the social assistance program, back since it was still named raskin (beras miskin), this subsidized rice quota is spread across many villages, in line with the number of families. Locals call this scheme bagito or dibagi roto (spread evenly).
Because of this scheme, Sijan only gets a quota of four liters (3.2 liters) of rice every month. Any remaining rice need is purchased at local shops. The price of rice at these shops has increased from Rp 9,000 to Rp 10,000 in the past two months.
In the current rice shortage seasons, many smalltime farmers and rice field workers have no rice stocks. They therefore become rice consumers who cannot enjoy the high price of rice. What happens, instead, is the opposite.
The government’s 2013 Agriculture Census shows that there are 22.9 million farming households, amounting to 87.6 percent of such households, with less than two hectares of rice fields. A majority of these people have less than 0.5 hectares of rice fields. The number of rice field workers is estimated to be more than five million households.
Despite working in the agriculture sector, they are the group most prone to food price increase. A small increase in rice price will significantly erode their purchasing power. For Sijan and perhaps the majority of smalltime farmers, this is a disaster.
