Humanizing Rice Seed Cultivation
Masroni, 47, abandoned four shophouses and a house in a city to develop the agriculture in his hometown of Kalensari village in Indramayu regency, West Java. He respects seeds and plants rice with his whole heart.
A public security officer visited Masroni\'s house one morning on Tuesday, 20 Aug. 2019. He was visiting was to ask for the rice seeds called Indonesian Farmer (IF) 16 that had been developed by the Indonesian Association of Indonesian Agricultural Seeds and Technology Bank (AB2TI), of which Masroni was a member.
The previous day’s harvest produced 12 tons or more of unhusked rice from a crop of IF paddies.
The production output was almost double that of regular rice varieties, and why many people were interested in the AB2TI’s hybrid variety. Masroni accepted the request, but he could not provide the seeds immediately, because the seeds from the harvest must be left to air-dry for at least two weeks. After this, it must be dried in the sun for 3-4 days until it had a moisture content of 13 percent.
"The seeds also need to rest before they planted. This is the concept of farming with the heart," he said, referring to the concept of treating rice plants as though they were human beings. The popular term is “humanizing seed cultivation”.
The AB2TI West Java coordinator requires anyone who wants to plant the IF 16 variety to understand the seed’s character and temperament, one of which is that it cannot be planted to produce three crops a year.
Like humans, he said, land also needs to rest to break the pest cycle. Otherwise, pests will reproduce because their main food source – rice – is being served constantly. Even so, the government often encourages farmers to plant three crops a year to increase production.
Varieties
The IF 16 rice variety and other farmer-developed varieties is inseparable from Masroni. In April, the kuwu (village head), along with AB2TI, held the inaugural Paddy Festival in Kalensari for rice seed developers to present their seeds.
Farmers from a number of regions registered 360 rice varieties with the Rice Festival, of which 90 varieties were selected and planted on village-owned land measuring 9.5 hectares. The land was allocated for use by the Kalensari village administration, but it was decided to use the land as the festival’s venue. The administration also allocated Rp 10 million from the village funds to host the festival. The planted varieties produced varying yields of 4.02 tons to 14 tons of unhusked rice per hectare.
The festival even produced two entries for the Indonesian Museum of Records: harvesting the largest number of rice varieties and cooking the largest amount of rice. Even Indramayu regency, which has 114,000 hectares of rice fields, has never made such achievements.
For Masroni, the achievements proved that farmers could be independent, at least in producing their own rice seeds. He said that farmers had so far been treated as a mere "market" for seed producing companies.
The same could also be said for chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Farmers had been spoiled by government assistance in everything from seeds to subsidized fertilizers that they could produce themselves.
Therefore I agree that the subsidy targets the output, such as in increasing the price of grain.
Even at the start of planting, farmers were already dependent on manufactured products, which was a problem even without assistance that was misdirected or late. Unfortunately, after the harvest, farmers had no power to determine the price of the grain. "Therefore I agree that the subsidy targets the output, such as in increasing the price of grain," said Masroni.
He also emphasized that farmers could be independent, and that farmers should not depend on others because other people also prioritized themselves. Farmers thus needed knowledge.
Masroni therefore joined the integrated pest control school (SLPHT), a program by the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) that was piloted in Indramayu and Sukabumi regencies.
He also once chaired the Indramayu Integrated Pest Management Farmers Association, a similar agricultural assistance program that was initiated by the Indonesian FIELD (Farmer\'s Initiatives for Ecological Livelihoods and Democracy) Foundation in the early 2000s. The farmers received training in producing their own fertilizers and seeds.
Successful wanderer
Masroni’s father Wahid, 70, and his mother Saroni (deceased), were sharecroppers who also farmed ducks. As a child, Masroni often accompanied his father to the rice field and fell asleep in a hut near the irrigation canal.
At first, Masroni aspired to teach religion after graduating from Babakan Ciwaringin Islamic boarding school. However, he did not pass the selection exam for religion teachers. His path led him to the Agriculture and Development Secondary School in Susukan, Cirebon.
Upon graduation, he worked for eight months in constructing an embankment along the Cisanggarung River in Ciledug, Cirebon, to save money for continuing his education at Sumedang’s Winaya Mukti University. Although he could not see out of his left eye because of a cataract that developed when he was in the sixth grade, Masroni was able to earn a bachelor’s degree in agriculture.
With no land or money, Masroni decided to head to the Indonesia-Malaysia border in Entikong, West Kalimantan, with his friends in the 2000s. There, he sold balloons and copper jewelry. After his four years of success in business, he owned four shophouses and a house in Malaysia and managed seven employees.
But his Malaysian adventure ended when his father asked him to come home to run the farm. As the eldest of two children, he abandoned his achievements to buy and manage 1.5 hectares of rice fields and became active in agricultural development with Warsiyah, a rice seed developer from Kalensari.
By becoming kuwu, it was easier for me to mobilize the people in agriculture.
The residents of Kalensari appeared to welcome his return, and chose Masroni as their kuwu in 2008. Around 1,120 residents renominated him for a second term, and it seemed that they were unanimous in their choice. He urged his wife to run against him, as there were no other candidates.
"By becoming kuwu, it was easier for me to mobilize the people in agriculture," he said.
For example, he has provided training for rice seed developers since 2016, especially young farmers. About 25 farmers took part in the training. The hope was that young farmers would be independent and would not be dependent on seeds or fertilizer from agriculture companies.
However, his story did not unfold as smoothly as the main road of Kalensari village. He was criticized by the government as well as his own family, who accused him of selling the new varieties to replace the practice of planting certain seeds and using certain pesticides that had been in place since the New Order era. Some even threatened to destroy his and other farmers\' crops.
"It was fined. I focus on farming on my own and encouraged young people to farm," he said.
Today, Masoni is cultivating guava trees in the village. He has distributed about 700 crystal guava seedlings to more than 300 families.
Nunuk village head Mashadi, 34, in neighboring Indramayu began to follow in Masroni’s footsteps. "We have budgeted village funds to train young rice seed developers while Pak Masroni is still around, so he can share his knowledge with young farmers," he said.
Masroni
Born: Widasari, 7 August 1972
Wife: Juharti
Occupation:
- Kalensari village head
- farmer
Organization:
Coordinator, AB2TI West Java