Gorontalo farmers enjoy clear river, earn well from corn

Warief Djajanto Basorie ,  Contributor ,  Gorontalo   |  Tue, 07/08/2008 10:21 AM  |  Environment

Loose sand and pebbles on the riverbed are visible, while the gurgle of water flowing through the hillside of Meranti village, in Gorontalo province, soothes the ear.

Ankle-deep in water, residents wade through the Polanggua, which is as wide as a four-lane street, to reach the other side. The river's clear water indicates no soil erosion upstream, while the absence of litter in the water shows the riverside residents care for the river.

Its source is the 1,000-meter-high Mount Tilongngabilo -- from here, a two-day trek on foot. A wider look at the river valley, from a ridge above the village, shows thick green foliage. The watershed is a forest of tall trees.

"You can see candlenut, teak and pine trees," Pulu Rauf, 64, says, gesturing beyond the river. Turning 135 degrees to his left, the stocky dry-land farmer points his right forefinger to another side of the ridge, behind which are cornfields and cocoa stands.

Meranti village in Tapa, Bone Bolango district, is a 45-minute drive from the hills north of the town of Gorontalo, the capital of the province with the same name in this northern part of Sulawesi Island.

A bentor (short for becak motor or motorized pedicab) cautiously brings a visitor through a winding, jagged trail down to Meranti, tucked in the fold of the northern hills,

The villagers have regreened their land.

In the 1970s, the village -- then called Langge before it was split in 2007 to become Langge and Meranti -- was in bad condition. Widespread tall grass and uncontrolled logging deformed and denuded the hills' green belt.

In 1977, Pulu received conservation training from the forestry service. He started a Johnny Appleseed drive of planting hardwood trees to reforest the village.

He later established the Karya Lestari farmers' group to rehabilitate the village's barren areas in a continuing community effort, with seeds from the forestry service.

In 1991, the effort won the group the government's Kalpataru Award, presented annually to individuals and organizations advancing environmental causes, in the "Saving the Environment" category.

By 1991, the Meranti farmers had regreened 500 hectares of land. As of 2008, they have covered 2,800 hectares, the entire area of the village. Each village family owns an average hold of two hectares.

Now the farmers grow commodity crops, particularly corn (maize) and cocoa.

With his entrepreneurial government concept, Gorontalo Governor Fadel Muhammad has made corn the province's chief commodity.

Fadel, a successful businessman in construction and engineering before becoming governor in December 2001, provided farmers with high-yield quality corn seeds, guaranteed them a floor price and secured a market for their output.

Now with a boom in feed and consumption, as well as in biofuel, corn's market price has soared.

In 2001, corn was a poor farmer's crop and fetched only Rp 400 per kilo. Today, the market price in Gorontalo is Rp 1,850 per kilo, according to a daily market quotation in the Gorontalo Post newspaper.

However, Pulu Rauf said he can earn Rp 2,300 per kilo for his hybrid corn when traders come to his village to buy a new yield.

"We're grateful to Fadel for creating the conditions to make corn growing profitable for farmers. The corn goes for export," said Pulu, a father of six grown children, 15 grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

The high-yield corn seeds have boosted yields from one ton to five tons per hectare. Gorontalo corn is exported to Malaysia and South Korea.

Farmers also earn well from cocoa and candlenut, two other cashcrops. Pulu says he gets Rp 22,500 per kilo for the cocoa and Rp 7,500 per kilo for the candlenut.

Pulu still does advocacy work. He has visited villages in all four districts, as well as one city of Gorontalo province that split from North Sulawesi in February 2001.

He meets with local farmers in the field and shares his experience in three areas: environmental conservation, family cohesion, and dry-land crop cultivation.

"Village life is so small and limited. People are born in the village, get sick in the village and die in the village. They live only because they eat. Now, by opening up, particularly through education, village people live to earn," he said.

Through his talks he advises farmers -- particularly those earning from cash crops -- not only to spend but also to save and build better lives. On raising a family, he underscores the importance of school. He has put all six of his children through high school.

Pulu still lives in a modest brick house powered by a generator. Except for individual generator sets, the village has no electricity.

The state electricity company, PT PLN, has already erected power line poles but the electric current has not been turned on, said 37-year-old Santo Rauf, Pulu's son who is also a dry-land farmer and one of several neighborhood heads in Meranti.

Looking ahead, what does Meranti village strive for?

"We want Meranti to become a desa mandiri (self-supporting village)," said Santo. The village should be able to develop small-scale industries from the crops it grows, he added.

Gorontalo province has only two Kalpataru-award recipients. Other than Pulu Rauf and his farmers' group, the other Kalpataru winner is Ahmad "Yessa" Dimyati in Boalemo district. He won the 1990 award in the environmental pioneering category for developing an irrigation system that opened new rice land.

Why has Gorontalo only had two Kalpataru recipients since 1980, whereas East Java has had more than 20 and East Nusa Tenggara more than 10?

"Actually Gorontalo has a number of Kalpataru candidates who've done good environmental work. The problem is they do not document their achievements, like keeping photos, which is a requirement to nominate them," said Rugayah Biki, head of the environmental affairs division in the Environment, Research and Information Technology Agency (BALHRISTI) of the Gorontalo provincial administration.

 

Warief Djajanto Basorie teaches at the Dr. Soetomo Press Institute (LPDS) in Jakarta and has led journalism workshops on covering sustainable development. He can be reached at wariefdj@yahoo.com.

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