From Green to Gene Revolution

The increasing number of world’s population, especially in developing countries, must be followed by the increasing amount of food. Referring to Thomas Robert Malthus, he stated that we should beware of the natural resources’ limited potency to produce food. Thereby, it must be developed to improve food production.

Green Revolution was an action to improve the technology of agriculture. It transformed a traditional farming to an advanced technological one. Ford and Rockefeller Foundation, pioneers in this field, evolved wheat in Mexico in 1950 and rice in the Philippines in 1960. Green Revolution accentuated in cereal crops, such as paddy, corn, wheat, etc. In 1970’s Indonesia’s government implemented Green Revolution by undertaking Farming Extensification and Intensification. Widening farm-land was the first farming about. The restriction of land induced the government to appoint mostly the second one.

A Farming Intensification was conducted through The Five Farm Enterprises which consisted of the use of superior seeds, land cultivation techniques, irrigation system or water management, fertilization, and pests and diseases control. Their main objective focused primarily on high external inputs of agriculture. The program was dominated by the consumption of chemicals, and the use of superior hybrid seeds and high-technological tools as the inputs.

Not only The Five Farm Enterprises have delivered positive impacts, but it also has bore negative collisions. As the preceding ones were the rise of rice and wheat production, the food fulfillment increased significantly as well. For example, Indonesia could alter its position from rice importer to a rice self-sufficiency country. The following ones were the decrease of protein production, the reduction of biodiversity, the dependence of chemicals, the emergence of new strains of resistant pests, the decline of land fertility, and eventually the imbalance of ecology.

The developing of The Five Farm Enterprises stimulated the excitements to engineer superior varieties, establish fertilizer factories, bear soil cultivation tools, create harvest processing tools, and formulate various formulas of pesticides. The role of Research Centers and Universities became predominant to reserve new technological inventions and improved old cultivation techniques. The purposes of those developments in technology were to generate and save not only food production but also the human’s life sustainability, and open a life opportunity for the next generation to free from fear of cannot-eat. The Five Farm Enterprises continued to be evolved. Direct or indirect institutions related to agriculture were involved to The Mass Guidance.

Later on, a social engineering called The Seven Farm Enterprises was arisen. It consisted of several tips used by farmers for planting paddy to produce qualified yield. At the time, the government frequently decided to import rice because of less qualified production by local farmers. The policy made the local farmers’ rice lose in competition with imported rice. Consequently, to gain a high quality product farmers conducted The Seven Farm Enterprises which consisted of The Five of Farm Enterprises that was added with post-harvest processing and marketing.

In Indonesia was Gene Revolution, better known as genetic engineering, scattered in the 1990s. It continued the implementation of The Five Farm Enterprises that more focused on engineered seeds development. Superior seeds as one element of Farm Enterprises have to be made by cross breeding two or more varieties. The plant breeding knowledge was dedicated to impose high yield of cereal crops as staple food. The way to get that was using genetically modified seeds created by moving genes from one organism to another. Sophisticated technology made it possible to happen in almost all living organisms. Thus, biotechnology is the most important tools of gene revolution.

The development of new seed varieties by genetic engineering was designed to facilitate the use of new technologies like synthetic fertilizers, pesticides and mechanized machinery manufactured by transnational companies. Here comes the problem! There was an alternation in the gene revolution’s previous objective which should bring wealthy to farmers as food producers. In fact, what have been done by farmers for years then was replaced by scientists and researchers. That’s still in the use of technology aspect. From the production facet, farmers’ role was substituted by big international manufactures. The seeds that use to be crossed pollinating usually was hybrid seeds while farmers get used with local seeds. Eventually, farmers got nothing from this model of development.

In the progress, it can be defined that gene revolution differs significantly from the older one which is the green revolution. It is owned by the public under government’s control, while the other one was a private business. There are intellectual property rights that can make a possibility for private companies to control and get profits. The profits that should be felt by all people go fairly to agrochemical companies. They have a great technology to get as high as possible profits not only from engineered seeds but also the package of them such as fertilizers and pesticides. Both the seeds and their package are all patented by some particular companies that make them more expensive. The companies claim farmers’ seeds and the varieties that have been spread out in rural communities. This action can cause all farmers profits taken away and captured by companies.

Finally, playing gene has no difference with playing game. It will keep on developing since it is alive. A gene will grow in several crops continuously in the environment. It is really difficult to control the contamination of genetic engineering (GE) crops because it happens naturally by wind, water or flying animals. In the field, it can result local varieties to disappear and the environment to be destroyed. In a legal field, farmers can be brought to court because of illegally using patented gene in crops although they did not intend to do that.

Despite the propaganda of genetic engineering being the solution to feed the world, many GE crops are truly grown for industrial than food use. As a conclusion, the development from green to gene revolution does not help agriculture in most aspects. Going to agricultural modernization has not solely been identically about genetic engineering and high technology. It can be worked by developing the potency of local knowledge, biodiversity, farming cultures, traditionally on-farm breeding, etc. in the rural community. Indonesia is the richest country with all of its potency in the world.

Dian Pratiwi Pribadi

Right to Food is The Human’s Basic Right

The number of the poor suffering from famine could never be decreased in the future. The one who has responsibility to this condition is the government. It also cannot be dispersed from the people’s culture accessing their food. People’s manner nowadays does not place food as important as before. Thus, both of them have their own parts which are the government violates or abandons people’s right to food and the people neglect the importance of qualified food.

Right to food is the right of every human being, including women and children, whose physical and economic access any time to obtain sufficient food as a requirement of human’s dignity. Right to food will be fulfilled if every man, woman, and child hold an overtime-access to sufficient food or its procurement methods physically and economically. Right to food is one element of human rights that consist of civic, political, economic, social, and cultural rights. It belongs to cultural rights.

According to The United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, there are three government’s obligations related to the right to food of its people: obligations to fulfill, to protect, and to respect. As a formal institution, government and all of its agencies have a big duty to make sure their people get their rights to food. When there are people suffering in hunger, government’s agencies must fulfill their needs on food, protect their accesses to food from disorders of the other parties, and respect their livelihoods to get proper food. It can use its tools of power to do those actions, such as regulations, policies, and programs.

The problem of famine can also be caused by inappropriate people’s manner on food. People are starting to be unaware on healthy and sufficient food. They begin to neglect food as primary needs recently. In this modern era, people give more concern to secondary goods, just like television, computer, or hand phone, than essential needs. Even the poor do this action for their prestige. Specifically for children, they are served by instant food because their parents are not willing to prepare enough time to healthier one. That is why there are many strange diseases massively spread out. The reason is that people do not pay attention to eating healthy food and living in a healthy life anymore. Then they will be tied up with poverty by keeping this way of life.

Right to food must be considered as the human’s basic right. In the name of human rights, people can advocate their right to food to government as a prime stakeholder when theirs are violated. To solve the cultural problem, building the people’s consciousness of the importance of food is the best solution. It needs cooperation between government and the people to conduct some related programs. Supporting this idea, right to food should be implemented comprehensively and integrated along with other human rights.

Dian Pratiwi Pribadi

Women Discrimination in Agricultural Resources Management

In this country, farmers are marginalized in almost all aspects of life. Socially, being farmers is one of livelihoods which are underestimating because of their low income and simple life. Economically, job opportunity in agriculture is getting fewer along the narrowness of productive land and less government’s program and budget in this field. Politically, the priority alternation from agricultural to industrial development has resulted some contrary policies that don’t take side to small farmers and support a sustainable agriculture. Culturally, agrarian culture with the local wisdom of rural community is assumed gradually to be old-fashioned compared with modern culture that is full of advanced technology of urban community. As a conclusion, farmers encounter discrimination to live their life properly.

The reasonable analysis where the women take place in agriculture field establishes obviously a double discrimination on them. The cause is that the Indonesians are still fully living with patriarchal culture placing women’s position below men. Women farmers are much uncountable in the planning and implementation of development programs in relating field because they are assumed to be represented by men as head of a family. Several laws and regulations affect women farmers losing their access to agricultural and natural resources management. These policies cause a not well-targeted and unsustainable development. There will be no significant impact to poverty number decreasing comprehensively in all over this country as long as farmers are still being a foundation of life of the Indonesians.

Women farmers experienced some facets of discrimination in agricultural and natural resources management from the implementation of Green Revolution of Indonesia in 1980s until recent years. In a rural farming culture, women take hold of particular roles in some aspects of life dispensed equally and fairly with men and other family members in domestic scope, and with other social groups in public scope or in a community. Those roles include some aspects of agricultural and natural resources management, such as land control, seedlings, plant cultivation works, rural farmer’s organization, and public decision making. Unfortunately, those roles is getting disappeared in the last decades replaced by high-technology and individually instant culture.

·      Right to Land

Political culture and cultural politics spread out in Indonesian people, because of patriarchal culture, cause women losing their rights to own a land properly, even though they got the land by their own efforts or inheritance. Land administration is in the name of their husbands after getting married or it is represented by their brothers if they are single or divorced. Women are considered only as supporting roles in the land right advocacy, so they are very often overlooked when the right has been captured and distributed. It belongs to the violation of women’s economic rights causing them not get benefit from the usage of land. For example, women can use land certificates as a guarantee to get a venture capital, or they can determine the management technique of the farm land by themselves. Women are dissociated from economic access to the land resources that put them into difficulties to be independent and susceptible to falling on poverty.

·      Right to Food

The production and storage of seeds have been women’s essential roles in farm for long time ago. They have developed local seeds from the forest and surroundings from generation to generation for centuries. Local seeds are naturally bred and selected so they can be kept productive, qualified, and relatively resistant to pests and diseases. These roles have started to disappear since government has introduced hybrid seeds whose natures are terminator and perishable. As a result, the seeds supply that previously became women’s responsibility was altered to seed companies and market’s role. Moreover, the seed subsidy established by government gives more financial beneficiary to seed companies than to farmers. In this condition, government violates women’s rights for not respecting their efforts to conserve seeds and defend their source of economy. It means that women lose their rights to food, the right to get adequate food to eat daily.

·      Plant Cultivation

Women place many roles in plant cultivation, such as seedling, transplanting, weeding, and harvesting. Doing those roles, women discrimination happens when their wages are lower than men in the same quantity of work hours. The consideration is that women’s works are lighter than men or they spend less energy. In fact, the amount of physical energy used at work is relatively the same between both of them. Even other jobs decide their wages on the capacity and professionalism of workers. This differentiation creates double burden on women who still have to be responsible on domestication and have to work twice harder to get equal wages upon men. It will be a distinctive burden, especially for the widowers. This problem is greatly caused by culture respecting men higher than women, called is patriarchal culture. In this case, government has not made any intervention on its policy to eliminate discrimination on women.

·      Rural Farmers Organization

Since The New Order Government was running, women’s roles were getting domesticated, including in an organization. Barely are women as members in farmers groups, particularly in water users’ farmers groups. However, women are the biggest water users. If they participate in farmers groups, they take part only in food division or joining a cooking training. The minimum access and opportunities for women in an organization cause their low capacity and skills to work on farm.

·      Public Decision Making

The difference between the opportunity given in farmers groups and the real women’s works in farm makes women have no bargaining position on decision making from the lowest level in family, community, until national level. In Development Planning Discussion, the number of women participation is still under 30% with inactive level of participation. It causes a not well-targeted development program and a stagnant poverty reduction eventually. This discrimination of rural women on decision making is a government’s violation to its people because of not fulfilling their political rights.

Dian Pratiwi Pribadi

Farmers and Peasants in Difference

Even though farmers and peasants work in the same field, in reality they have three main differences. The first difference between both of them is about the size of their farmland. Farmers control more than 1/6 Ha farmland. In contrast, peasants just restrain less of it. They also differ in work management. In the planting season, farmers start to till their land by hiring farm workers until all the work is finished. Because of their large land, they need more power to cover all work. Though farmers have some planting skills, they rather take part as managers on their farming. On the other hand, peasants are used to working on their land by themselves. Due to their lack of land and assets, they cannot afford the payment of farm workers. Then the final difference is that farmers have more freedom to choose various kinds of plants for food to plant. They could be from main crops until horticultural ones. In contrast, peasants have no other option to plant beside paddy, corn and cassava. The same reason behind this is just the same with the previous two differences. They are about the lack of land and assets of peasants. Planting various kinds of crops need a big cost of production and a larger land either. If peasants insist to plant them, their farming will not be efficient or even they will get broke. Therefore, peasants are used to be called as small-scale farmers, and they are poorer than farmers.

Dian Pratiwi Pribadi