By Sal Valdez-Ono
As we strolled through the seemingly endless rice fields at Jatiluwih, our group of students from the University of Maryland stopped at several commercial stands selling rice, fruits, and of course, the ever-present tourist goods. Jatiluwih is a subak, or a traditional rice field management cooperative, found in Bali, Indonesia. Jatiluwih is one of the largest subaks left, and accounts for a large portion of daily tourists in Bali. These subak systems are struggling despite being a UNESCO-protected cultural heritage site, with some of the largest struggles being connected to the low wages and labor-intensive work it takes to manage a subak.
One concern with farmer wages is the inequitable distribution of UNESCO preservation funding and economic support from the government to the subak farmers. According to our guides, only a small portion of funds that are set aside for subak maintenance—for the purposes of cultural heritage and tourism—actually reach the farmers. The amounts that do reach the farmers must be divided even further across competing costs. A major issue is that the farmers do not receive the money directly. Instead, the village governance system receives the funds and then allocates that money to the subak farmers as they see fit.
This system brings the governance from the centralized government and heritage authorities into question: Why would not trust the farmers to properly manage the funds directly?
Unveiling the Unfair Distribution of Funds
Approximately 2% of funds from the total pot of heritage funding for subaks actually reach the villages that the farms are located within. However, as mentioned above, this is not the end of the dividing. The funding is further divided and distributed again to farmers and subak unions.
Additionally, there are many instances where the government could be doing more to support the farmers who provide so much for the tourism industry. One major issue is the development in and around the subak. Businesses, such as restaurants and tourism shops, overtake many of the important subak entrances and areas, with villas becoming the walls and boundaries of the site, all vying for a viewpoint to sell. By putting more burden onto these business owners, who are often foreigners, the local government could bring additional support to the subaks, which both the government and these businesses rely on. Instead, the farmers are seemingly left to fend for themselves. According to our guides, out of the taxes these businesses owe, 50% is left after government shares, then this sum is further divided down twice more, leaving approximately 12.5% of the total funding left for the subak farmers.
Knowledge Co-Production in Agricultural Policy and Indonesia
Knowledge co-production is a collaborative process between two parties. Oftentimes one top down government role and one bottom up community role work together towards common goals of management and the creation of applicable knowledge and skills. In this context, knowledge co-production would involve the government trying to create a system for understanding the best planting seasons and asking traditional farmers for support. Knowledge co-production also emphasizes the importance of local environmental knowledge, indigenous knowledge, and non-Western knowledge as core components. Knowledge co-productions allows for expansion beyond the typical realm of Western knowledge in policy making in order to create potentially stronger and more equitable outcomes for multiple levels of citizen and government.
Farmers and locals have long been addressed in challenges that are enviro-centric in Indonesia, ranging from watershed management to deforestation, from climate adaptation to sustainable farming practices (Leimona et al. 2015; Hapsari 2018; Tolinggi et al. 2023; Arifah et al. 2023). These examples of knowledge co-production lay a foundation for the potential partnership between farmer and government to create sustainable tourism initiatives that could support the subak in a way that also sustainably supports the farmers that make them possible.
Addressing the Trust Deficit and Promoting Knowledge Co-Production
With this being said, why not apply the concepts of knowledge co-production to the management of the subak in the realm of tourism and budgeting for cultural upkeep? A precedent has been set for strong knowledge co-production in Indonesia, and NGOs are ready to take on the challenge of being the bridge between government and local farmers.
Additionally, increased transparency between the government and the farmers in terms of direct funding allocations would help repair the trust that has been damaged with the farmers over the years. Active participation by the farmers in a cooperative fashion with the government could lead to stronger budgets, stronger communities, and a stronger subak. All of these elements are crucial to upholding what the subak is for Indonesia: a cultural and traditional highlight, as well as a tourist attraction that helps bring in important revenue.
References
Arifah, Darmawan Salman, Amir Yassi, and Eymal Bahsar Demmallino. 2023. “Knowledge Flow Analysis of Knowledge Co-Production-Based Climate Change Adaptation for Lowland Rice Farmers in Bulukumba Regency, Indonesia.” Regional Sustainability 4 (2): 194–202. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.regsus.2023.05.005.
Hapsari, Maharani. 2018. “Contesting ‘Deforestation’: Civil Society Movements and Knowledge Co-Production in Indonesia.” PCD Journal 6 (1): 117–46. https://doi.org/10.22146/pcd.33763.
Leimona, Beria, Betha Lusiana, Meine van Noordwijk, Elok Mulyoutami, Andree Ekadinata, and Sacha Amaruzaman. 2015. “Boundary Work: Knowledge Co-Production for Negotiating Payment for Watershed Services in Indonesia.” Ecosystem Services 15 (October): 45–62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2015.07.002.
Tolinggi, Wawan K., Darmawan Salman, Rahmadanih, and Hari Iswoyo. 2023. “Farmer Regeneration and Knowledge Co-Creation in the Sustainability of Coconut Agribusiness in Gorontalo, Indonesia.” Open Agriculture 8 (1). https://doi.org/10.1515/opag-2022-0162.
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