July 22, 2011
Indonesia
A story about successful rice farmer and his change from an illegal logger to the best farmer in Aceh thanks to the support of a CCR project.
He is usually the first person you see after stepping foot in the small village of Masen in Aceh Jaya, Indonesia: a relatively tall and broad shouldered 34-year old man, patiently walking through his field, inspecting the grains of his rice plants. Mauliddin has loved agriculture for as long as he can remember. His father owned a plot of land on the outskirts of Masen village when he was a child. He would rush home after school to help his brothers in the paddy field grilling them with questions about the soil, grains and farming techniques. During those warm afternoons, Mauliddin dreamed of cultivating his own field of rice someday.
Trying to keep afloat
Mauliddin’s dream has not been that easy to realize. He had to drop out after finishing elementary school. There was no high school close enough to his village to walk to and his father had ran out of money to pay for his education. The rice from the paddy field was enough to put food on the table for part of the year, but money was too short to pay for extras. To solve the family’s money problems, Mauliddin took on all kinds of day-jobs. He climbed 40 coconut trees each day and sold the nuts to small village vendors; worked as a casual laborer in a rubber plantation and tried to cook food for a palm oil company. None of his jobs provided him with enough money to support his family. To supplement his income, Mauliddin started to log trees and sell the wood to local timber collectors. Masen borders one of North Sumatra’s tropical rainforests and villagers have had easy access to the wood for decades. Although logging has been illegal for some years, many people in Masen considered it their only livelihood option and continued cutting the trees and selling the wood. Mauliddin was among them for many years.
Mauliddin joined the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) when he was 19 years old. Aceh had been involved in a prolonged conflict between the Indonesian military and GAM. Mauliddin helped GAM with logistical aspects. He was even sent to combat training where he learned to use a gun. In 2002, GAM activities became more intense and the fighting became more regular and dangerous. Mauliddin decided to get married and – because of the increasing risks – drop out of GAM. The conflict intensified soon after and Mauliddin and his family were forced to flee to a nearby refugee camp to stay safe. His father died of a heart attack soon after they arrived, as he could not take the pressure. Life in the camp was far from easy. The military did not trust Mauliddin and suspected he was part of GAM. He was forced to stand guard for nights on end and was attacked by officers on more than one occasion. Food was hard to come by and Mauliddin had no option but to climb the coconut trees again and try to sell the nuts. He had to ask the military for permission to leave the camp and come back before nightfall. Days in the camp were long and Mauliddin felt disconnected from the world.
When Mauliddin and his wife returned to Masen in 2004, he did not recognize his village. Houses were burnt down, roads were destroyed and electricity was not available anymore. To make things worse, Mauliddin's paddy field had reverted into a jungle. The soil had degenerated and wild plants were scattered all over the field. While Mauliddin and his neighbors were trying to rebuild Masen village, a tsunami hit Aceh. Although Masen was not directly afftected by the tsunami, chaos spread throughout the province. Food security became an issue for the already troubled community. Mauliddin and other men in Masen had to move deep into the forest to look for janen – a local root that can be eaten – to feed to village. In 2005, Mauliddin had cleared a small plot of land for rice cultivation, but only managed to harvest 500-1000kg per harvesting cycle. This was not nearly enough to ensure that his family had enough to eat through the year. He went and looked for other jobs to get a little extra income and even turned to logging again.
Farmers Field School
In 2008, the village leader of Masen approached Mauliddin and asked him if he wanted to take part in a project organized by the INGO Caritas Czech Republic (CCR). The project would center on sustainable rice cultivation and introduce a new set of farming practices called the System of Rice Intensification (SRI). The project would teach him how he could harvest more rice by using less water, less pesticide and chemical fertilizers and finally less seeds. He would also be able to harvest twice a year instead of the current once a year. Mauliddin was immediately suspicious. He talked it over with the rest of Masen’s farmers and all of them agreed that the techniques proposedy by CCR and its partner PANSU had no chance of working - how could you possibly harvest more rice if you put less seed in the ground? Mauliddin had been working in paddy fields all of his life. He knew one or two things about farming and SRI just seemed very strange to him. Masen’s village leaders asked Mauliddin to reconsider. The community still suffered food shortages and had to rely on food assistance from the Indonesian government’s “Rice for the poor” program for at least 3 months of each year. Would it hurt him to try something new that might change the tide and provide Masen with enough rice to get through the year? Mauliddin and his fellow farmers soon agreed and formed a farmers’ group together called ‘Ci Coba’, meaning: Let us try!
CCR supported Masen’s farmers by organizing sixteen sessions of Farmers Field School (FFS), a method where farmers could learn new skills and acquire new agricultural knowledge by practicing lessons learnt directly on demonstration plots. Ci Coba made a demonstration plot of 1 hectare. Mauliddin went to FFS each Saturday and learnt about soil management, weeding, seed saving, organic composts and so forth. In the beginning, he was not all that enthusiastic. He still was not sure SRI would work and was a little bit afraid of presenting his lessons learnt to the group in afternoon sessions. The teachers asked everyone to give presentations on what they had practiced on the demo plots and Mauliddin was afraid he would be a terrible public speaker. He preferred to sit in the back and be quiet. As the weeks went by, his attitude changed and he became more confident to speak in public.
After three months of Farmer Field School, farmers were ready to harvest their 1-hectare demo plot. Mauliddin was astonished when they harvested 6.5 tons of rice. Mauliddin had never been able to reach such a high yield in his own field. With conventional cultivation methods he would harvest a maximum of 1-2 tons per hectare. And to think that this time on the demonstration plot, they used less seeds and could complete two harvest cycles a year! When the group examined the results, their last reservations about SRI vanished. The group took on a second, 13-hectare, demo plot in 2009 and tried the SRI methods on a few different local and high-yield rice varieties. The October 2009 harvest ceremony in Masen was visited by farmers from many of its surrounding villages. When they heard about the big yield and SRI, they approached CCR to ask if the project could be replicated in their villages
In the meantime, Mauliddin had been elected Ci Coba’s secretary. He was in charge of regulating the irrigation water for the demo plots, and of monitoring the group’s usage of hand tractors for land preparation. Many times, farmers would come up to him and asks his advice on weeding or land preparation. He was never too busy to help them out. His hard work did not go unnoticed by Caritas Czech Republic’s project staff and when CCR decided to replicate the SRI system in 15 of Masen's neighboring villages, they approached him for help.
From student to teacher
CCR asked Mauliddin to become a local facilitator. This meant that Mauliddin would become one of the trainers in CCR’s next round of FFS sessions in other villages. Mauliddin did not have to consider for long and soon agreed to become an SRI trainer. He thought it was only fair if other farmers could get the same chance he had received in 2008. Mauliddin was sent to training on group dynamics in Central Java to prepare him for the task. He also received an additional ‘Training of Trainers’ (TOT) course on SRI in Nusantara Organic SRI Center (NOSC) in West-Java.
Mauliddin took his new job as a local SRI trainer very seriously and saw it as an opportunity to update his knowledge on SRI methodology. He started his first FFS sessions in 2010. At first, public speaking still scared him a bit, but he soon improved. During his training, Mauliddin came across the same hesitant attitude he himself had felt only a little more than a year ago. Some farmers – even though they had heard and sometimes even witnessed the amazing yield in Masen village – were afraid the method would not succeed in their fields. Mauliddin told them their fears would soon wane after they harvested their demo plot. According to Mauliddin; the key to success is trust. If they farmers trust him, he can make the training a success.
In mid 2010, the local agriculture extension service Balai Penyuluhan Pertanian (BPP) heard about Mauliddin’s success as a local SRI trainer. Some of BPP’s extension workers supported CCR’s Farmers Field School sessions and saw the Mauliddin's skills. BPP decided to submit Mauliddin’s profile to represent his sub-district in the award for ‘Best Farmer of Aceh Jaya’. They nominated him because of his efforts over the past year and because of his life’s story. He had come really far from climbing 40 coconut trees a day to being a successful and inspiring SRI trainer. Mauliddin won the award and was selected best farmer of Aceh Jaya 2010. Now that CCR’s livelihood project in Mauliddin's sub-district has come to a close, together with others in his farmers' group he has come up with a way to keep empowering other farmers in the area. Masen’s village head has donated a part of his own land to build an SRI Community Center. Mauliddin has worked hard to help build the center. Outside farmers groups can now come to Masen and learn about SRI and organic farming. Mauliddin will be around to teach them.
In July 2011, Mauliddin received news that he had once declared best farmer of Aceh. It has been a dream come true.
Written by Kelly Schut
