This story excerpt was translated from bahasa Indonesia. To read the original story in full, visit Kompas. You may also view the original story on the Rainforest Journalism Fund website here. Our website is available in English, Spanish, bahasa Indonesia, French, and Portuguese.
The "food estate" program in Central Kalimantan, prepared to answer national food needs, has the potential to become a source of new problems. The program also cannot replace the Dayak traditional farming system.
JAKARTA, KOMPAS—The food estate program in Central Kalimantan is prepared to answer national food needs. At the local level, it is expected to replace the traditional cultivation system that has been banned. However, findings in the field show various problems faced by this national strategic program.
Some of Kompas' findings in the field from July 15-28, 2022, ranged from cassava fields that looked neglected in Tawai Baru Village, Gunung Mas Regency, to fertilizer and dolomite lime aid that was left piled up on the side of the road at new rice field locations in a number of villages in Pulang Pisau Regency and Kapuas Regency. These three districts are food estate program locations.
Erwin Noorwibowo, Director of Land Expansion and Protection at the Ministry of Agriculture, said in an online discussion on Tuesday (8/23/2022) that the food estate program in Central Kalimantan is intended to sustain food security in the future. This is because the conversion of rice fields now reaches 100,000 hectares (ha) per year. Meanwhile, the population grows by around 2.7 million people per year.
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Cassava plants in the "food estate" program area of Tewai Baru Village, Gunung Mas, look thin and unkempt, even though they are more than one year old, Sunday (7/24/2022). Image by Ahmad Arif/Kompas. Indonesia, 2022. Workers prepare cassava seedlings in Tewai Baru Village, Gunung Mas Regency, Central Kalimantan, Saturday (6/3/2021). Thousands of cassava stems have been planted at the location, which is a logistics reserve for the program. Image by Dionisius Reynaldo Triwibowo/Kompas. Indonesia, 2021. Banner of the location of the Ministry of Defense's cassava program in Tewai Baru Village, Gunung Mas Regency, Central Kalimantan, Saturday (11/28/2020). Image by Dionisius Reynaldo Triwibowo/Kompas. Indonesia, 2020. Heavy equipment cannot operate because it is stuck in mud at the cassava planting site in Tewai Baru Village, Gunung Mas Regency, Central Kalimantan, Saturday (11/28/2020). The cassava planting program began at this location. Image by Dionisius Reynaldo Triwibowo/Kompas. Indonesia, 2020. The broken floor of a pier in Pangkoh Hulu Village, Pulang Pisau Regency, Central Kalimantan, began to sink into the Kahayan River on Thursday (1/27/2022). The pier supporting the food barn collapsed before it could be used. Image by Dionisius Reynaldo Triwibowo/Kompas. Indonesia, 2022. Belanti Siam farmers, Pulang Pisau Regency, Central Kalimantan, began harvesting on Friday (1/29/2021). This time, the harvest in the food barn village failed because it could not meet the target. Image by Dionisius Reynaldo Triwibowo/Kompas. Indonesia, 2021. Government assistance fertilizers for food barns in the extensification program are abandoned on the side of the road in Mantangai, Kapuas Regency, These fertilizers are not used because the land is not ready to be cultivated by farmer groups, Wednesday (7/20/2022). Not only fertilizers, but also seeds and lime as well as NPK, were wasted in the pile. Image by Dionisius Reynaldo Triwibowo/Kompas. Indonesia, 2022. President Joko Widodo with Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto, Agriculture Minister Syahrul Yasin Limpo, PUPR Minister Basuki Hadimuljono and Central Kalimantan Governor Sugianto Sabran look at the location of the planned food barn program in Bentuk Jaya Village, Kapuas Regency, Central Kalimantan, Thursday (7/9/2020). There are at least 20,000 hectares of land in Kapuas Regency prepared for paddy fields. Image by Dionisius Reynaldo Triwibowo/Kompas. Indonesia, 2020. A "vegetable uncle," as residents in Kalumpang and Pilang Village, Pulang Pisau, call the vegetable vendors who pass through their villages. Vegetable sellers have become more frequent, especially after the ban on burning, which has made residents less likely to go to the fields. Image by Dionisius Reynaldo Triwibowo/Kompas. Indonesia, 2022.
