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Rice
followed by Maize in Karang Agung Tengah .
Rice crop in Jambi province (hand-tractor use)
One of the major
constraints for agricultural development in Tidal Swamps is the limited
availability of labor. Farmers own mostly 2 Ha or more; too much for rice
cultivation based on manual labor.
This
limitation has
a major impact on the potentials of the rice and how the rice is cultivated in
Tidal Swamps.
Land Preparation
When there is no
possibility for mechanized land preparation by hand-tractor, the farmers will do
the land preparation manually. Because of labor shortages a low input TOT
system (Tanpa Olah Tanah (*), or no tillage system, will be applied) .
Although this is a
sensible way to cultivate the land in the swamps when there is a lack of labor, it
has severe negative effects on potentials.
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Without tractor use the planting period is quite extended,
because the manual land preparation takes a long time. It is a generally known fact that planting rice over
an increased time period strongly increases the hazards of pest attacks. |
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No soil tillage
increases the hazard that toxic components in the topsoil remain after
planting and will harm the rice plant. |
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The result of the extended planting
period and the increased hazard for toxic components makes local traditional
rice varieties the most suitable rice variety for planting. However local
varieties do not have a potential higher than 2 ton dry husked rice/Ha. |
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When the soil becomes more ripe and
the shallow pyrite layers have been oxidized and leached out, the mechanical
land preparation (tillage) will promote the formation of a plow layer. A
plow layer will extent the period a water layer can be maintained on the
field. This condition will encourage farmers to grow a second crop at the
end of the rainy season. |
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Presently new
rice varieties are available in Indonesia with an 80 days growing period.
That will make the possibility of 2 rainfed crops possible in many areas of
the Tidal Lowlands. |
When improved rice varieties can be
introduced after the introduction of plowing by hand tractors, many farmers
will also prefer a broadcast sowing system of the seeds to reduce the long time
needed for transplanting. AARD recommends also the use of a
manually operated row seeder to be more effective for weeding, pest control
and harvesting etc., but most farmers still use the broadcast sowing system. (*)
TOT means land preparation will mainly
concentrate on burning and/or slashing the weeds or using herbicides. This
land preparation will be carried out with no or only little soil tillage.
Planting of seedlings will be done by making a hole with a stick and
planting the seedling in the hole.
Effects of mechanization
It will become
possible for the farmers to change from local varieties to high yielding
varieties. Also the cultivation of two rice crops per year might become a
possibility as land preparation and planting will take less time. This
combined with the 80 days growing period of the newest High Yielding
Varieties will increase the potentials for two crops per year
considerably.
The
inputs for two crops of rice per year will cause major changes in the
physical environment of the Tidal Swamps
To
encourage the farmers to cultivate two crops per year, the following
conditions are required:
Physical
ripening of the soil
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The soils should become more ripe. So the
effects of mechanized land preparation will be optimized. More ripe
soils are obtained by keeping the groundwater level at about 60 cm
below surface in the dry season when no crops are on the land. This
requires an On-Farm Water Management system of small ditches combined
with a main system with water control structures to operate the water
levels in the canal system at lower levels than at the moment. |
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The ripening process also requires that flushing
and leaching will be required at the beginning of the rainy season.
The far best method for leaching is deep mechanical plowing (20-30 cm)
at the beginning of the wet season, sun-drying of the clods, followed
by leaching/flushing using rain water and/or tidal irrigation water. |
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When a plow layer will be created by mechanical
plowing in the ripe soil, it will become possible and economic to use
additional pump irrigation for the second crop when required. |
Reduced and
more efficient labor use during the post-harvest period
An important
limitation for the farmers to grow a second crop is the long time it
requires to harvest the first crop, do the threshing of the padi, and to
dry the husked rice during the wet season.
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The bad management during the post-harvest
period in the wet season will cause that farmers receive a low price
for their crop. The long period it requires to carry out the
post-harvest activities delays their planting for the second crop,
while rainfall will become lower with time, causing more severe
drought risks for their delayed second crop. Further the low rice
price for their poorly managed post-harvest crop does not encourage
the farmers to grow the second crop. |
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An important help to reduce the labor inputs in
the post-harvest period is the power thresher which will reduce
dramatically the time required to thresh the padi to husked rice. |
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Drying of the husked rice using a flat-bed drier
with a blower and burner will greatly improve the quality of the dried
rice and will increase the price the farmer's will receive for their
rice crop. |
At the moment
BULOG (Dolog-Sumsel)is installing for the first time a Rice Mill with post-harvest
facilities in Telang , South Sumatra province.
(Bulog= Indonesia
Logistic Bureau. Government controls the rice market in Indonesia through
BULOG)
Dolog=the
provincial Logistics Depot in South Sumatra province (Sumsel)
Also based on the experience of the local Research
Institute of Sriwijaya University in Palembang for the schemes in Telang
area (SumSel), the conclusion can be made that
successful Tidal Lowland development requires relatively high
investments in human resources and technical infrastructure. A low
cost-low input approach does not work. The table below summarizes the
required investments which emphasizes an integrated approach.
Table 1: Aspects of a successful Lowland
Development Strategy
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No |
Purpose |
Activities |
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01 |
AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT
|
–
Mechanized agricultural development
–
Providing agricultural inputs (seed, fertilizers, pesticide)
–
Uniform cropping one secondary water management unit
–
Crop diversification, dry food-tree crops, aquaculture
–
Cropping intensity to 2x per year
–
Train.-Exten. for the farmers and local government staff
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02
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WATER MANAGEMENT |
–
Installation/ Rehabilitation of water control structures
–
Operation and Maintenance of the structures
–
Training of OM for the farmers-local government staff
–
Aqua-culture development
–
Estate crops/ Tree crops |
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03
|
POST HARVEST HANDLING |
–
Sufficient and well distributed processing/ drying of grains/
post harvest handling
–
Storage
–
Transportation to the market
–
Marketing
|
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04 |
REGIONAL, ECONOMIC, SOCIAL INFRASTRUC-
TURES |
–
Improvement of waterway facilities
–
Road development
–
Development of Market
–
Facilities for drinking, sanitation, education, health,
religious
–
Spatial planning |
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05 |
INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT |
–
R & D, Training-Ext by the local research institute
–
Initiative action and commitment of local government
–
Private sector involvement
–
Participatory approach
–
Banking/ Credit
mechanism |
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06 |
MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM (MIS) |
–
Asset management
–
Monitoring and Evaluation
–
Geographical Information System
–
Modeling of water
management |
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07
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ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT MANAGEMENT |
–
EIA documents (Amdal/ UKL/UPL)
–
Law and regulation
–
Conservation of natural resources |
For
proper post-harvest potentials see: rice processing inputs
For Land Quality
descriptions as found in the Tidal Lowlands goto
http://www.eelaart.com/land_qualities.htm
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