Future farmers: Students of Petangâs vocational agriculture middle high school discover that farming could be a viable career into the future
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Food security is an issue facing governments around the world and the group of people most capable of holding back the threat of reduced agricultural production is farmers.
However, in many nations, these backbones of food security are left in the margins, struggling to make a living from the land.
Their children look to the cities for a shot at better wages for easier work and developers eye their farmlands for housing. In Bali, this too often leads to land conversions and the permanent loss of quality productive land.
To raise the profile of farmers, to give them their dues in society and remind the public of their significance to our daily lives, Badung regency holds an annual festival that invites farmers working on lands within the tourist madness that is Kuta by the sea and up through the rolling hills to the villages in the Petang area, which also takes in the powerhouse of value-added farming and marketing.
Youngsters visiting the festival are given the opportunity to see that farming is diverse and rapidly developing into a viable precession.
'It's really interesting to see what is here at the festival,' says 13-year-old Widari from Petang's vocational agriculture middle high school.
'We students hope in the future, farmers will develop more. This festival helps a lot and it brings farmers together,' added Widari with regard to the opportunity for farmers to see what other agricultural areas are doing to advance farming methods and income.
Badung regency has built its wealth and reputation on the tourist industry, but this wealthiest of Bali's regencies also recognizes the importance of its agricultural sector, showcased during The Badung Agricultural Festival held in early August at its northern most boundary of the Tukad Bangkung Bridge in Petang.
Stretching hundreds of meters on each side of the road, dozens of stalls offer organic produce, homegrown ginger teas, the famous Pelaga asparagus, marigolds in their thousands, vertical farming techniques for city dwellers, oyster mushrooms grown locally in a new venture into farm produce that attracts greater returns than the cassava and corn once common to the areas.
It is this move into more diverse and value-added farming, on show during the festival, that is offering a glimmer of hope to farmers, says Udayana University agriculture lecturer Ketut Suada, who was visiting the Petang kiosk.
'The most important issue for Balinese farmers is sustainable agriculture. Land conversions [from farm to development lands] are a major issue for such a small island. There is an absolute need for a moratorium on land conversions because in Bali, farming is the most important work,' says Suada, stressing that without farmers, the subak (traditional farming) culture would be lost, cutting away the very foundations of the Balinese way of life.
Sustainable agriculture, Suada points out, would ensure farmers earn incomes that allow them to educate their children, save money for future needs and give them the impetus to stay on the land.
The festival helped promote the benefits and possibilities of farming, he added.
'We need to grow high quality, value-added agriculture, like what is happening in Pelaga. That is a great example,' says Suada of the village once desperately poor, now via good research on crops, a shining example of the wealth available in farming.
Also at the festival is agribusiness marketing lecturer at Udayana University, Dewa Sarjana, who says that while the festival is a good platform for farmers, there is still a long way to go to improve the lives of Bali's farmers.
'This festival is great to motivate farmers; however the other issue is still an initial forward guiding to create sustainable agriculture. From the government we need regulations to market farmers' produce, so they can continue to farm. Real marketing is needed, there are markets, yes, but no marketing,' says Sarjana.
Another issue facing Bali's agriculture sector is succession planning, a tool used in large corporations to train future company heads.
Despite teaching agriculture, Udayana lecturer Ngurah Bagus said many young people with farming backgrounds were seeking other employment options. 'Some of our students are from farms, but a lot of young people are not interested in farming,' he says.
Turning that tide are teachers from SMK 1 Petang ' an agricultural vocational school that also had a stand at the festival displaying vertical farming systems, hydroponic methods and introductions to the potential of organic farming.
Teacher Siswanata said the vocational farming program was aimed at keeping the youth on farms.
'Bali is a tourist area, but we also need to support our farming industry because that is also important to tourists. So our school helps produce new farmers. We need government support and regulations to protect faming in Bali and make it sustainable,' he says.
'The problem today is as our farmers are age; the willingness of the youth to farm is declining. Our school hopes to support farming and direct young people into farms into the future,'
' Photos by J.B.Djwan
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