Asian Transformations in Action - Api-fellowships.org

SPECIFICITIES OF GLOBALIZATION 147of rice in 1998, 4.2 million metric tons in 1999 andtwo million metric tons in 2003 (Sidik 2004). Rice hasbecome a food security issue for Indonesia. In 2004,the government prohibited the importation of riceduring the harvesting season and charged an import taxIDR430/kg. At present, Indonesia imports many kindsof food such as soybean, sugar, fruit, meat, milk andcotton. When these products are imported, the domesticprice goes down and farmers suffer. At the same time,the government is unable to launch a domestic supportprogram because of Agreement on Agriculture under theWTO. Although Indonesia is an agricultural country, itis dependent on imports. Thus, it will face the problemof food insecurity over the long term.The study of rice-based communities, such as the case ofPucangan community and the community network inNgawi District and Setrorejo community in WonogiriDistrict, found that farmers’ cost of production hasincreased. However, the price of domestic rice hasremained low as it has to compete with the low priceof imported rice. Indonesia imports rice from America,Thailand, Vietnam, Japan and Myanmar, and becauseof the free trade agreement within the ASEAN and theWTO, this rice import is tax-free. This brings downthe price of rice from these countries, and Indonesianfarmers end up selling their rice at a very low price. Atthe same time, the prices of other goods such as cookingoil, clothing, gasoline and education-related expenseshave gone up; therefore, farmers do not earn enoughincome and become indebted. Many have to work atother jobs, as laborers or furniture makers, for example,or migrate to work in town. Woman farmers have alsobeen affected by the economic problems and their rolehas changed. Like the men, they also have to migrate tothe towns or to other countries. Most of the women wholeave the country work as housekeepers in the MiddleEast or Malaysia, or as workers in the service sector orin factories in Jakarta and other large Indonesian cities.In some villages, almost the only people left livingthere are old men and children. During the economiccrisis, landless people also faced difficulties in findingjobs. Although the government has a program to helpthe poor by selling rice at a cheap price, there is notenough of this rice to meet the demand. In some cases,children have had to leave school since their parentscould not afford to pay their school fees. Some landlessfarmers rent land and have to share their produce withthe landowner or pay the rent in cash. This furtherincreases the cost of production for these farmers. Landownership is a problem for farmers in Indonesia, andthe government had a policy for land reform since the1960s but access to land is still a big problem. Manyfarmers have reflected that the government shouldlaunch a policy to protect small farmers. The nationaland international policies for trade liberalization weremade without the people’s participation in the decisionmaking processes.2. Changes to agri-food production and the trading systemChanges in farming patterns since the Green Revolutionand changes in government policies in response to freetrade have resulted in changes in the national productionstructure. In Japan, the government prioritizes farmswith areas larger than four hectares; meanwhile, mostsmall farmers own only one hectare, except in Hokkaido.The government still supports small farmers living onmountains where small parcels of land cannot be easilycombined to support agribusiness. However, the trendfor Japanese agriculture is to become large scale andfor agribusiness to play a more important role. Smallfarmers in Japan are now mobilized and have adaptedtheir production patterns by combining land parcelsor setting up production groups or companies. In thefuture, this pattern will multiply. Farmers may changetheir relationship to a joint venture and draw salariesas in the case of a business firm. Some farmers maysurvive, especially those living in areas where parcels ofland cannot be combined and those who establish selfhelpsystems within the family or group by practicingsustainable agriculture. The principal farmer group thatmay survive is the group that receives support in theform of direct payments on five major crops, namelysoybeans, wheat, barley, beets and Irish potatoes. In2006, other items being supported by the governmenthave been added, such as vegetables, fruit and animalproducts.In Indonesia, the government launched a policy toincrease rice production for the nation’s food security.Normally, farmers rely on external inputs such as chemicalfertilizers, pesticides, improved animal breeds and plantseeds, and technology. After the implementation offree trade, trading in agricultural inputs has becomeeasier and the traders’ business is booming. Whiletrading small farmers’ rice is a problem, the businessfirms, especially large scale ones, play a greater role. Anagribusiness company, a joint venture between Thaiand Indonesian entities, produces maize seed. There isanother company, a joint venture between Indonesianand Dutch entities, that produces vegetable seed andfruit seedlings. Meanwhile, the promotion of palmoil is under the control of Indonesian and Malaysiancompanies. For poultry, although farmers raise nativechickens, 75 percent of poultry is produced by a Thaicompany. As the structure of food production changed,the trade system also changed. Some goods are underthe supervision of the Indonesian government, suchAsian Transformations in ActionThe Work of the 2006/2007 API Fellows