City'€™s edge: Near the city of Denpasar, 52 hectares of rice fields are protected from development.

At almost US$60,000 per 100 square meters, land near Bali'€™s capital city, Denpasar, is up there with some of the most expensive in the province.

This figure is driving a boom in the housing industry and get-rich-quick schemes for middlemen, known locally as makler, some of whom work on the shady side of the law, impersonating officers from land agencies to con farmers into selling.

Holding out against the pressure applied by these makler is no easy task for farmers strapped for cash still working their lands near the city.

It takes a heroic stoicism to pass up guaranteed riches when school fees are due, the cost of ceremonies is rising, along with electricity, gas and fuel prices, when, at the flick of the wrist across a land sale contract, a new Harley Davidson could be parked out front, an indoor bathroom with running hot and cold water installed in the house and money worries erased for the foreseeable future.

The only strings attached to selling off the farm would be the ruination of tradition, the collapse of religious obligations and the abandoning of a stewardship over productive lands handed down over hundreds of years '€” a price far too great say the farmers of Karang Gadon subak organization in Badung regency. Together they own and farm 52 hectares of prime real estate just eight kilometers from Denpasar.

Subak head for the past nine years, I Ketut Sudarka says farms in his area play crucial roles in local communities. '€œFarms are our heritage for our children and their children, but the subak system is also under the UNESCO Heritage listing.

Added income: Adding terati or water lilies to rice field farming supplies extra income for farmers and helps keep them on the land.
We were so happy to be accepted into this as global heritage. To see our rice fields destroyed, we would be ashamed in front of the world,'€ says Ketut.

He adds that he cannot imagine the devastation that would be wrought if subak in Bali were lost. '€œEvery subak has a holy place known as pengulun suwi. If we are lost, who will care for the holy places? If all the rice fields were lost, I don'€™t know what the gods would do. I cannot imagine such a thing.'€

To prevent such disaster, Ketut says his organization has banned land conversions of productive farmland to residential property to ensure that farming survives in the long term.

'€œWe have 52 ha of farmland within our subak, which are banned from land conversion under an agreement our subak has with Badung regency,'€ says Ketut from his home, which is still headed by his 91-year-old father, I Made Rugeg, who farmed the land until the recent past.

Ketut says many makler make their way to his home attempting to cut land deals. All fail, he says, pointing out that when developers seek to purchase land within the subak'€™s jurisdiction, they will have to face Ketut, regardless of who is selling the land.

'€œOften makler come here, but we hide as they bring money that we don'€™t want to see. Even if makler go to other farmers, eventually they have to face me as the pekasi [subak head] and I will always refuse land conversion,'€ says Ketut, adding that a few years ago, a woman came knocking at his door wanting to purchase almost 2 ha for a housing project.

'€œShe said she was with the Land Agency and we had to convert those hectares for building, because the land was dry. I knew that she was not from the government and we didn'€™t sell,'€ says Ketut.

Saving city farms: This rice farm, just eight kilometers from the city of Denpasar, is protected under a subak agreement.
'€œEverything is tough for farmers. We make enough money for food, but to educate our kids is really hard. We see low returns on harvests, an increasing cost of living and rubbish coming into the water channels that used to be crystal clear. Now they are filled with plastic and rubbish,'€ says Ketut.

However, there are some loose threads in the tapestry that makes up Karang Gadon subak'€™s commitment to the land.

A minority of local farmers would like to convert their land into cash, says farmer Made Suwata. '€œSome of our farmers have different needs. They want instant money,'€ says Suwata.

Moving into value-added crops is one way to increase returns. '€œWe are going organic, which will definitely increase the value of our rice harvests. Some farmers are planting terati and that offers a good income,'€ Ketut says. His father, Made Rugeg, adds that farming in the old days was much easier than today.

'€œI am proud that my son has continued our faming tradition, because we were born to be farmers. It was easier in my day. It was all organic and we never got sick. Rice was easy to grow and the old rice strains were perfumed and had so much flavor. I was happy farming; in the fields my thinking remained in balance,'€ says Rugeg.