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