Seeds Belong to Farmers

High quality corn seeds produced by farmers

The seed is the source of life for most creatures. A seed grows to be a plant functioned to run life-cycle of the earth for some reasons. Herbivores consume it in many ways to live their life. Several creatures stay in specific plants indeed as their habitat. Particularly for human being, a seed is immensely important in any sectors of life. A political phrase says that: “The one who can control the seed will control the world”. It means that one can produce various kinds of plants from indigenous seeds taken from the forest. Plant production determines whether hunger or prosperity happening in the world. Thereby, Indonesia has the richest biodiversity in the world, chiefly consists of plants grown in the forest. At the beginning, farmers had got seeds from the forest. Then they cultivated them in the field. Traditional farmers maintain local seeds so they can be planted in the next planting season. In this way, farmers depend on seeds as crucial means of production in their livelihood. Thus, agriculture field is developed by the knowledge of seedlings in one aspect.

Diverse kinds of seeds production are mastered by farmers for some conditions. Hundreds of farmers in Kediri and surrounding area in East Java are skilled in corn seeds production, since East Java is the biggest corn production in the country, with the largest harvested area. Its climate and culture provides appropriate environment. Producing a corn seed is the most profitable among any others though. Furthermore, still thousands farmers in Java and outer islands are well-experienced in bearing various varieties of paddy, vegetable and fruit seeds. They use conventional practices to produce seeds, sometimes combined with advanced technology that they learn from cooperation process with company autonomously, or contemporary ones from trainings and extension by field officers. By producing seeds themselves, farmers can reduce the cost of production and increase farm income. Seeds produced by farmers are certainly cheaper and environmentally safer than company’s production. They get used to creating their own way to produce a seed using local wisdom to survive.

Big problems then were faced by farmers. Since 2004, there were 15 corn seed farmers have been assumed to break the Law No. 12/1992 on Plant Cultivation System. Some of them had to be jailed for months. It’s all just because they produced and sold seed without legal certification, the practices they had been done for years. A big seed company was behind this case and assumed farmers used its patented seed. Farmers had no idea about the Law as the field officers have never explained or warned. In condition that farmers had to face the law enforcement, the government officer testified against farmers. This contra-productive act insulted farmers as criminals. Because of this case, many farmers were intimidated by the police. As a result, they were afraid of producing seed anymore. Some of them and their family have become traumatic for never facing the law before. Thereby, they lose their livelihoods.

To improve development for farmer’s interest as a core actor in agriculture, the government and stakeholders must deliver solutions to this seed farmer’s case. They should take this phrase as their principle: “Land belongs to farmers as a tiller, so do seeds (instead of the company)”. Some experts in law and agriculture declare their analysis that there is a trade competition above the case. The act that the government takes side in the company interest is untrue. There must be some policies and programs to protect farmers from criminalization against company. Farmers have to be given a large opportunity to manage their own farming to produce seeds with supportive policies. Traditional practices that are still useful to conserve seed variety and quality have to be defensible. These must be approved by substantial programs to maintain biodiversity and manage natural resources for a just prosperity of Indonesia people.

Dian Pratiwi Pribadi

Food Sovereignty For Farmers’ Wealth

For the sake of farmers’ wealth, the government must hold up food sovereignty. It means that the government has to arrange supportive policies and programs in order to fulfill food supply for the people and farmers themselves and raise their income as being food producers. First, government has to launch intensive extension and gives access to inputs resources, such as land, seeds, water, power, fertilizers, and pesticides, also credit to farmers implementing organic agriculture. Within this program, the food will be produced in natural and organic cultivation system. Besides getting healthy food, the farmland and its surrounding environment will be kept sustainably and productively by the system. This is also a purpose of food sovereignty. Then, the government must provide supportive policies to build a fair market for farmer’s production. For example, it has to decrease imported agriculture products or increase their taxes, stabilize farm gate prices, and allocate in-country investment. These programs and policies provide farmers with healthier food produced by them and increase the output they can sell in fair markets to raise farm income.

Dian Pratiwi Pribadi

Agrarian Nation: Development in Agricultural Sector without Agrarian Reform

Terraced paddy field in Jugo

Indonesia is popular as an Agrarian Nation, with a great amount of rural population and huge natural resources. "Our ancestor is a sailor”, is the title of a kid song. The sea region is one third of the largeness of Indonesia. Thousands kinds of creature live in the sea. At this time, about 60% of Indonesian people count on their livelihood as farmers. 50% of farmers include small scale-farmers or peasants and farm workers, whose land is less than 0,25 hectares or landless, forest dwellers and fishers. The majority of farmland is planted with main plants, such as paddy, corn and cassava. Horticultural plants are usually planted in highlands. Beside that, several different farming practices are poultry, livestock, dairy-cattle, fishery, etc. There are also hectares of plantations and forests. What a large and rich Agrarian Nation Indonesia is!

Indonesia’s agriculture development has changed to industrial development. After reaching self-sufficiency in food with The Green Revolution program, the development policy altered all resources from agricultural sector to industry. The policy stabilizing the prices on basic goods with no subsidies on agriculture inputs has made the farmers’ products low in price. Moreover, the imported rice has destroyed domestic market for farmers’ product. A large amount of farmland in rural area become buildings and industrial area. Agricultural inputs, such as seeds, fertilizers and pesticides that are produced by big corporations with subsidies from the government, result in the disappearance of farmers’ local wisdom to produce local seeds and natural fertilizers. All of the government’s policies have destructed farmer's livelihoods and decreased agriculture development in Indonesia.

The Agrarian Reform program should be a priority in development to alleviate poverty in Indonesia. Most of farmers live in rural area which is wider than urban area all of the regions. Because of lack of access to land and other inputs of production, farmers and other rural communities cannot get enough income to fulfill their daily needs. The program consists of some activities, such as a just land distribution, allocating productive land for farming, empowering farmers to produce their own agricultural inputs, suitable farming system for environmental sustainability, credits provision for farming, build local market at reasonable prices and good quality, and supportive policies. Rural area and its community where the program is implemented have to be a subject in the development. The program can be a solution to reduce poverty based on agriculture sector.

Dian Pratiwi Pribadi