The Best of the Bureau/The_Best_of_the_Bureau_Bureau_Development_Inc._1992.iso/dp/0021/00215.txt

Text File | 1992-08-07 | 29KB | 473 lines

$Unique_ID{bob00215}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Indonesia
Chapter 3C.   Crop Development}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Riga Adiwoso-Suprapto}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{production
million
tons
government
percent
oil
per
hectares
foreign
total
see
pictures
see
figures
}
$Date{1982}
$Log{See Coffee Production*0021501.scf
See Clearing Land for Exploration*0021502.scf
}
Title:       Indonesia
Book:        Indonesia, A Country Study
Author:      Riga Adiwoso-Suprapto
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1982

Chapter 3C.   Crop Development

     Rice has been the staple of the diet, and the government has devoted
its scarce resources especially to its development. The Bimas and Inmas
programs focused on rice production from the start, although in the latter
half of the 1970s they began to include other food crops. Most of the
efforts to encourage the use of modern inputs and better cropping patterns
were successful, except in 1972 when the government's attempt to control
all the marketing of fertilizer had a severe effect on the crop. Thereafter,
yields generally increased until 1976 and 1977, when a particularly harmful
insect pest, the brown plant hopper (wereng), destroyed much of the new
rice varieties. The rapid introduction into the choicest farm areas of
varieties that were resistant to the wereng resulted in major improvements.
In 1980 and 1981 there were record harvests of over 20 million tons of
milled rice (see table 8, Appendix).

     Although the good rice harvests have permitted imports to fall to their
lowest level in over a decade and have taxed the stockpiling capacity of
Bulog to its limit, problems remained. The newer rice varieties demanded
the farmer's close attention and well-timed applications of fertilizer
and irrigation. In the event of drought, the shortfalls could be enormous.
In the constant race between the development of new plant genotypes and
the natural evolution of insect biotypes, however, the scientists appeared
to be ahead, at least temporarily. More important for the welfare of farmers
on the Outer Islands was the development of new strains of dryland rice and
other food crops, the development of which has lagged behind that of sawah
rice.

     Maize was the second leading food crop and was particularly important for
lower income groups. Better fertilizer use in East Java Province, where about
60 percent of the crop was farmed, has increased yields from about 1.2 tons
per hectare in the 1969-71 period to some 1.5 tons per hectare in 1977-80.
Current breeding efforts focused on the development of quick-maturing and
disease-resistant varieties adapted to regional climate differences and taste
preferences.

     The other major food crops were cassava, soybeans, and peanuts. Until
recently, research in cassava has been neglected. Although yields were about
25 percent above their level in 1969-71, they were less than half those
achieved in other parts of Southeast Asia. Research in the development of new
varieties of soybeans and groundnuts was better than that for cassava, but
based on research results elsewhere, startlingly improved yields were probably
not attainable. Overall, the prospects for the food crop sector were good,
although the nation could be expected to be a net importer of from 4 to 6
million tons of rice equivalent until the end of the century.

     Perennial tree crops were planted on approximately one-third of the total
cropland and were important to smallholder incomes as well as to the balance
of payments. Rubber and coconut plants covered about 80 percent of the rubber
area devoted to tree crops. Smallholders worked most of the crop and nearly
all of the coconut, coffee, cloves, and pepper holdings. Public estates and a
few private estates dominated tea and oil palm production. In the early 1970s
the production of most estate crops, except for oil palm, stagnated as the
trees aged, and government attention began to focus on food crops. Under
Repelita III the government was attempting to make up for this neglect, and
production was improving (see table 9, Appendix).

     The government's plan was to invest the equivalent of some US$16.7
billion to expand the area under tree crops from 6 million to 8.2 million
hectares by the end of the 1980s. In addition, one-third of the existing area
was to be rehabilitated. One Malaysian newspaper called these plans wildly
ambitious and reported that officials would be satisfied if half of the
objectives were reached. The plans centered on the expansion of rubber, oil
palm, and coconut estates, particularly in areas developed by transmigrants,
such as the Sumatran provinces of Jambi, Riau, and Aceh, and on Kalimantan.
The cooperation of the World Bank has been enlisted for the development of 10
tree-crop estates.

     Indonesia was once the largest producer of natural rubber in the world,
and was second only to Malaysia at the start of the 1980s. Rubber cultivation
provided full-time employment for some 2 million farmers and part-time work
for 6 to 8 million others. There were about 1.9 million hectares of
smallholder rubber plots averaging about 1.5 hectares each, concentrated on
Sumatra and Java. The area under the control of government and private estates
has been declining and totaled about 450,000 hectares, of which some 200,000
were government owned in 1977. Production was centered on Sumatra, Java, and
Kalimantan. The productivity of government and foreign estates was much higher
than on smallholder and private domestic estates, where over three-quarters of
the trees were over 30 years old. During the 1980s the government planned to
rehabilitate 40 percent of the existing area and add 500,000 hectares to
smallholder areas.

     The nation was also the second largest producer in the world of oil palm
and coconut products. The area planted with oil palms nearly doubled in the
1969-79 period to 232,000 hectares. Public estates accounted for about 70
percent of the total, and private estates for all the remainder, except for
about 1,000 hectares under smallholder production. The government's estate
projects should increase smallholder cultivation to about 8,000 hectares by
the mid-1980s. Since 1978 the government has diverted most of the nation's
exports to domestic consumption to replace imports of coconut oil.

     Farms devoted exclusively to coconut production were located on the Outer
Islands, particularly Sulawesi and Sumatra. On Java, where a little under
one-third of production took place, the coconut crop was secondary to others.
Production of coconut oil had been unable to meet domestic demand since 1978,
although the nation continued to export copra. Poor planting and management
procedures have resulted in decreasing yields, and the government intended to
plant or replant 310,000 hectares and rehabilitate 75,000 hectares under
Repelita III; eventually, more than 1 million hectares would be replanted.

     Indonesia was the second largest producer of sugar in the world before
World War II but has been a net importer since independence. A massive program
to stimulate production began in 1981, when the government doubled producer
prices to entice smallholder production. It was hoped that production would
expand from 1.4 million tons in 1981 to 3.4 million tons in 1988. The
government planned to rehabilitate 43 of 58 existing sugar mills to handle
this increased volume as well as to build 18 new mills. About 300,000 hectares
on the Outer Islands were to be converted to sugar production. Most experts
thought the plans too ambitious, not only because of domestic constraints but
also because of the poor international market.

     Coffee production, directly or indirectly, supported the lives of 6
million people. A major program to replant the aging stock of trees succeeded
in raising output in the late 1970s, and the full effects of this effort were
beginning to be realized in 1982. Because the government has had difficulty in
increasing its export quota, the replantin