Yustina Jari, Sorghum that Empowers
Yustina Jari
The dry season has always given headaches to farmers in Kima Kamak village, West Adonara district, East Flores, East Nusa Tenggara. In that season, corn and banana plants that usually provide crops die from lack of water. However, since 2016 Yustina Jari, 39, has reminded people they have another alternative: sorghum.
Sorghum is a species of grass like wheat and corn, but the stem is higher than corn stalks. This type of cereal plant was forgotten by farmers for decades following a shift in people’s consumption to tubers, corn mixed with beans, bananas and rice. In fact, residents can only plant rice once a year because of low rainfall.
With hard and rocky soil, plants are difficult to grow. The hybrid corn seeds distributed by the government to farmers also cannot stand the conditions of the dry Kima Kamak village.
In the dry season, corn leaves are wrinkled and wilted. Corn harvests are only kept for two months because they then get moldy. Therefore, residents sell their corn as soon as possible. After that, residents fulfill their food needs by selling cassava leaves, sweet potato leaves, papaya and firewood to Waiwarang Market, Adonara Islands.
Yustina used to sell anything that could be produced from her garden to Waiwarang Market at least three times a week. Like other residents of Kima Kamak village, Yustina went to the market by riding a motorbike for 45 minutes. The round trip fee was Rp 25,000. She can pocket Rp 100,000 to Rp 200,000 from selling fruits, vegetables and firewood. The money is used to buy 20 to 30 kilograms of rice for Rp 10,000 to Rp 11,000 per kilogram to feed her family for one week.
She must be able to manage time. In the morning, she sends her child to school, cares for a grandchild and tends plants in the garden. After a few hours in the garden, she goes home to prepare lunch for her son, who returns from school, and her husband, Jacobus Doni Narek. When the meal is finished, she goes back to the garden and returns home in the afternoon.
Sometimes, she accompanies her husband for the whole day while visiting the cultivated farmland located on the slopes of a hill. After working for about two hours, both of them return home in the afternoon. “If we go on foot to our farmland, we will get sweaty and if we have influenza it can heal,” Yustina said, describing the distance from her home to the fields.
In 2016, a long dry season hit the village and it depleted food supplies. “We were confused that we could not eat because the corn, bananas and cassava died from a lack of water because of the long dry season,” said Yustina, who is usually called Mama Jari.
That was when she met Marselinus Beda Hurik from the Social Assessment and Development Foundation in East Flores. Marselinus gave her a handful of sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L) to plant in her garden.
Believe in “hala”
In 2016, there were community assistance institutions that offered programs for the development of local food, such as sorghum, millet, local corn and beans. Yustina chose to plant sorghum given by Marselinus in a half-hectare garden next to her house. The garden area is divided into two to be planted with sorghum and hybrid corn.
In the midst of her role as mother and farmer, Yustina not only thinks of her family, but also about other residents. She wants her neighbors to also be able to reduce their dependence on rice, which often fails and is expensive because it is imported from outside the area in the high season. “I tried it first [planting sorghum] so that I could invite other people to plant it” she said.
As a result, during the dry season, hybrid corn dies from lack of water, while sorghum flourishes and can be harvested. Sorghum sells for Rp 15,000 per kilogram in the village. However, she does not sell it all. She shares some with other housewives as seeds for planting.
She does not only share the seeds. She also actively invites the other mothers to plant sorghum. If there is an opportunity, during the day or night, she meets them at home or in the fields to just talk about sorghum.
At first, the residents believed in hala or were hesitant to do something new before seeing the concrete results, especially how they would market the sorghum after harvesting it.
“We plant it first. When it’s harvested, YPPS helps find the buyers later,” she encouraged the residents.
At that time, she was only able to “influence” 15 families to try planting sorghum. After three months, sorghum can be harvested. Then the crops are consumed and the rest is made into seeds.
In 2017, people’s doubts began to subdue. There were 15 other families who were willing to plant sorghum on a total area of 2 ha. Residents are increasingly excited because sorghum can be picked four times a year and survive in the dry season.
That year, the advocacy institution failed to buy all the sorghum harvested by the people even though the price was Rp 10,000 per kilogram. Because none of the farmers sold their sorghum all of their crops were consumed by themselves.
Yustina became increasingly convinced her hard work asking the neighbors to plant sorghum and make it a staple food was not fruitless. Along with that, rice consumption began to decrease. Residents are increasingly accustomed to mixing sorghum and rice to cook. In the mix, there is more sorghum than rice.
Yustina, who graduated from elementary school, continues to develop her creativity by attending education and training programs for producing processed food skills held by a number of foundations. In the training, she demonstrated how to make compote with millet ingredients, make banana flour and ice from sorghum. She can also process “poisonous tubers” into edible food.
Yustina still has much work given the fact that only 30 of the 90 families in the village have followed in her footsteps to grow sorghum and other local foods. They joined the Farmers Group of the Kima Kamak village. However, her work has inspired farmers to grow food commodities according to the climate.
Thanks to Yustina, the Kima Kamak village administration issued a regulation in 2018 requiring farmers to plant sorghum. The village also received a donation from the Agriculture Ministry in the form of a machine for processing sorghum and a milling machine to produce sorghum flour.
Yustina Jari
Born: Kima Lamak village, East Flores, NTT
Husband: Jacobus Doni Narek
Children: Stevanus Don Narek, Yuliana Sovila Uto and Yovinsius Suban Narek
Education: Elementary school SDN Inpres Adonara (1992)
Award: Woman Food Fighters 2018 from Oxfam Indonesia
