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Wet rice cultivation in Indonesia Chapter two
The control function implies that it is possible to redirect the water in rivers and streams on
time in the rainy season. This gives farmers the ability to protect the paddy on the sawahs
from floodwaters. Weak bends in rivers are often strengthened with small dams. Thus, dams
have a double function, i.e. a watering function and a control function (Van Setten van der
Meer, 1979:21).
Lastly, irrigation also provides the function of fertilisation. Achieving enrichment of
the field is of a high importance. This takes place through the transportation of nutrients from
rivers or streams (Mohr, 1946:43). Soil fertility of sawahs does affect the yield of rice, just as
fertilisation does. Nevertheless, this does not appear to exhaust the soil, even over longer
periods without fertilisation. On virgin soils, a rapid decline in yield usually takes place within
two or three years in case of the absence fertilisation. After ten or twenty years, the yield of
sawahs tends to remain stable more or less indefinitely (Murphey, 1957).
In short, wet rice cultivation on Java can be characterised as an open and flat field,
cultivated with a mono-crop. It is a highly specialised regime, and depends heavy on waterborn
minerals for nutrition, a reliance on man-made waterworks and a stable equilibrium with
regard to the yield (Geertz, 1963:37).
2.3.3 Modernisation and innovation in wet rice cultivation
The methods and techniques used for wet rice cultivation as described in the sections above
remained almost unchanged for centuries. This situation changed when the Dutch
introduced the development of irrigation as a colonial policy instrument at the end of the 19 th
century. From the perspective of the Dutch, there were two main reasons to do this. First,
irrigation was considered effective in reducing the problems of long periods of drought,
causing famine as a result of crop failure in some parts of Central Java at that time. Second,
foreign estate companies began to lease land for the cultivation of commodity crops. In
order to establish large-scale estate systems, they considered small-scale community
systems as not appropriate. At the same time, the progress in hydraulic engineering caused
the development of large-scale irrigation systems, particularly at the alluvial plain of the
northern coastal zone of Java (Pasandaran, 2004).
As has been mentioned before, wet rice cultivation makes it possible to achieve
higher yields compared to swidden rice cultivation. This becomes more important as the
population of a country grows significantly. In Western Europe, higher yields could be
achieved in the 20 th century through continuous mechanization, in order to reduce the
amount of labour needed and therefore also the costs of labour (Van der Eng, 2004:2).
Mechanization of wet rice cultivation is difficult however, because the wetland-like soil is not
suitable for heavy machines.
They would simply sink into the
Yield of rice in Java in tons/ha, 1900-2000
mud. Since land is very scarce
on Java, the sawahs are 6
relatively small. And the 5
smaller a sawah is, the less 4
handy is the usage of
3
machines. Consequently,
2
modernisation within wet rice
cultivation is generally focused 1
on two aspects; the usage of 0
high-yielding varieties (HYV) in 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000
combination with fertilizers
Year
(Hazell & Ramasamy, 1991).
Tons/ha
Figure 2.2: increase of rice production per hectare on Java
(Source: Pasandaran, 2004; Vermillion, 1999)
16