Climate Change
When Farmers Struggle to Read Nature
Update | January 25, 2016 11:52 GMT+7 Ikon jumlah hit 27 view(s) Ikon komentar 0 comment(s)

By ABDULLAH FIKRI ASHRI and RINI KUSTIASIH

Gray clouds floated above the paddy fields of Bayalangu, Gegesik district, Cirebon regency, West Java, Saturday (23/1/2016). Alkoni, 55, a local farmer, gave little attention to the downpour that was soaking his small frame. His scuffle hoe scraped the soil that until a few days before was cracking from dryness.

He was not alone. Dozens of Gegesik farmers are still preparing their fields for planting. "We should have spread the fertilizer by January. We're planting late," Alkoni said.

In previous years, the impending rain meant it was time to prepare the land for rice planting. Cultivation started at the latest in December, when the rain was at its most intense. It has been different for the past few years, however. The heavy rains have not started until January so the farmers have been forced to delay rice planting.

Pumping water into the fields so rice planting could start in December was not possible this year as the water level of rivers was at a minimum. Alkoni could only yield to nature.

Like Alkoni, farmers on the northern coast of West Java, which is a national rice bowl area, are facing the same challenges. In Cirebon, for instance, about 26,000 hectares, of a total 45,500 ha of agricultural land, still lay fallow last week.

"The planting season moves back each year, but this year was the worst," Alkoni said.

Financial losses are around the corner. Alkoni does not own the land; he merely rents the less-than-half-hectare plot, for Rp 4 million each planting season. Once fertilizers, land cultivation and pesticides are accounted for, Alkoni expects the resulting two tons of unmilled rice grains to yield Rp 7 million, around US$500.

"That's Rp1 million of profit for tending the land for three and a half months. Well, that would be the case if there's no pest attack," he added.

Other farmers in the agricultural heartland of Indramayu regency, West Java, have to deal with the same predicament: the erratic forces of nature.

"Last January, my fields were flooded. Then came the dry season, and now we have to delay planting. What's going on?" Sujaya, 35, a farmer in Lohbener district, Indramayu, said in exasperation.

The Agency for Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics in Jatiwangi, which oversees Cirebon, Indramayu, Majalengka and Kuningan, said rain in Cirebon would stop by April and in Indramayu by March. This means the farmers will need water just as the dry season returns.

On the other hand, Aceh, Riau and Jambi, for instance, will struggle with high volumes of rain and an increased risk of flooding.

Relationship to El Niño

The erratic weather patterns throughout the country are related to a strengthening El Niño. Due to natural forces and greater exposure to local, regional and global emissions, the strong effects of El Niño are worrying: the water available for irrigation is drying up and minimal rainfall exacerbates this problem. All this extends to other parts of the country and is predicted to last until April 2016.

Climate change, which caused 2015 to be the year in which the earth experienced its hottest temperatures, is a global phenomenon. Michel Jarraud, who headed the World Meteorological Organization in Geneva until recently, said El Niño contributed to manmade climate change (Kompas, 29/12/2015).

Environmentally unfriendly development, such as deforestation, the drying out of peatlands and overuse of fossil fuels such as coal and oil, is the root cause of climate change, which in turn is leading to the erratic weather patterns in Cirebon and Indramayu.

Amid worsening weather patterns and a changing climate, representatives from 150 countries gathered in Paris in December 2015 for the 21st Conference of Parties (COP). All agreed to commit to development that is friendlier to the environment so that by 2030, increases in the global temperature remains around 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsius above pre-Industrial Revolution emission standards.

Far from Paris, Alkoni and Sujaya have little knowledge of this global agreement. They only know of the shifting planting seasons and debts incurred for working the land. Rats simply add to their problems.

Tasrip Abubakar, chief of the Cirebon chapter of the Indonesian Farmers Association, said the natural phenomenon should instead lead farmers to think about solutions.

Farmers are victims of a changing climate. "Farmers and the planting seasons must change. The government also needs to prepare a food strategy by, for example, refurbishing the village granaries to make sure the rice bowl areas themselves don't go hungry," he said.

As world leaders, Indonesia included, discuss targets to keep the global temperature in check, Alkoni and thousands of farmers in the country must come up with ways to continue farming successfully. The government must play its part to provide more than just information to farmers.

Sumber: http://print.kompas.com/baca/2016/01/25/When-Farmers-Struggle-to-Read-Nature