Sustainable Agriculture and Food: Four volume set (Earthscan Reference Collections)

The Environmental and Social Costs of Improvement 45

their territory. They have a complex grazing rotation system in which they move
among eight different forage regimes. This can mean that some land is free of peo-
ple and animals for long periods, which allows it to be preserved from overuse. All
members of the community have access to communal land. But this access is not

Box 1.2 The impact of modernization on the traditional wet rice cultivation

system of Bali

Wet rice has been cultivated in Bali since at least AD882. Irrigation cooperatives, the

subaks, are responsible for the allocation of water and the maintenance of irrigation

networks, as wet rice is too complex for one farmer to practise alone. Each subak

member has one vote regardless of the size of landholding. Soil fertility is main-

tained by the use of ash, organic matter and manures. Rotations and staggered

planting of dry and wet crops control pests and diseases. Bamboo poles, wind-

driven noise-makers, flags and streamers scare off birds. And rice is harvested in

groups, stored in barns and traded only as needs arise. Rice yields are typically

1–2t/ha, and sometimes as high as 3t/ha.

Modernization depends on the adoption of the whole new package. The major

impacts have been as follows.

• Yields could be 50 per cent greater than under the traditional system, but only
  under optimum conditions, as the new rice was more susceptible to climatic
  and water variation.


• Pests and diseases increased as a result of the continuous cropping and the
  killing of predators and frogs by pesticides.


• Farmers sold cattle, as no they were longer needed for ploughing and
  manures.


• Mechanised rice mills displaced groups of women who used to thresh and mill
  the rice.


• Harvest teams replaced the communal banjar activities at harvest.


• As the new rice could not be stored for long periods (it had a thinner, looser
  husk and softer kernel), it had to be sold immediately after harvest when the
  prices were lowest. This meant men received large sums of cash, and the
  women could no longer plan for the year’s food security by monitoring the rice
  barn. ‘Wisdom lies in keeping the family’s capital in the rice barn, where they
  can regulate and dispense it, rather than in the form of risky, hard-to-manage
  cash lump sums.’


• The subak organizations, once in complete control, lost many decisions to
  higher level institutions – now the government decides cropping patterns, plant-
  ing dates and irrigation investments.


• The subak also organized redistribution through local religious and ritual cul-
  ture, as the better off were expected to give more goods and services to com-
  munity ceremonies.


• Reduced labour and employment in rice cultivation forced rural people to seek
  work elsewhere.

Source: Poffenberger and Zurbuchen, 1980