Mapak toyo means '€œgreeting'€ or '€œwelcoming water'€. It'€™s also a ritual conducted by farmers in Bantul, Yogyakarta, to remove mounting rubbish, particularly plastic trash, in irrigation channels.

When planting season comes around, farmers have to smooth the flow of water by clearing irrigation channels so water can reach the paddy fields.

With rubbish heaping up, conduits will be clogged, reducing the water flow to thousands of hectares by half and threatening productivity.

'€œWithout getting rid of the rubbish, vast areas of paddy fields will be threatened by water shortages,'€ said Sunardi Wiyono, 70, the chairman of the Clean Irrigation Movement (GIB).

Formed two years ago as a manifestation of the farmers'€™ war on garbage, the GIB, along with 40 farmers'€™ groups using irrigation water in Bantul, has so far launched anti-trash actions only
sporadically.

The '€œMapak Toyo'€ event held recently in Timbulharjo in Bantul, was meant to be the first of an annual campaign to make people aware of the need to avoid dumping rubbish into rivers.

Seventeen gunungan (mountain-shaped offerings of produce) from 17 hamlets in the village were paraded to a local dam. The procession also included traditional food, such as sego wiwit (spiced rice), snacks, rice cones and hundreds of pieces of boiled and flavored chicken.

On the menu: After prayers, the farmers and local residents will eat the food prepared as blessings.

Arriving at the Miri Dam, the offerings were neatly arranged along the edge of the reservoir. Praises to the Prophet were chanted to the accompaniment of traditional mortar-pestle music, with a prayer ceremony headed by village elders.

Then, hundreds of farmers and residents savored the sego wiwit. The spiced rice was typically consumed with sambel gepeng, a relish made from fried black soybeans ground with chili and mixed with salted fish.

'€œThis rice, according to the Prophet'€™s teachings, symbolizes virtue, which will make life even better and more peaceful if continuously spread,'€ said M. Irvan, a community figure in Timbulharjo.

The '€œMapak Toyo'€ event also serves as an arena to strengthen relations among local residents, as all the ritual accessories and offerings are prepared by local people on a gotong royong, or mutual assistance, basis.

While men craft gunungan frames and garnish them with produce, women cook the different kinds of food. '€œGotong royong will bring people closer together amid the erosion of this spirit by globalization,'€ he added.

This ritual is organized as farmers are entering the second planting season around March or April. '€œIt'€™s also intended as an expression of our gratitude to God for the harvests of the first planting season,'€ Sunardi said.

According to Sunardi, the ritual was initiated as the first drive along with the farmers'€™ groups to prepare for the second planting season by making sure of the proper flow of irrigation water, because their previous sporadic attempts were less optimal.

Let'€™s get the party started: People prepare for the ritual.

'€œThis is at the same time a campaign to prevent non-farming residents from discarding trash into river streams, as this will increase the trouble faced by farmers,'€ Sunardi said.

Even in a tertiary irrigation channel, at least 150 used sanitary napkins can be found, not to mention plastic, which comes in a bigger quantity.

'€œEvery year, our 40 farmer groups will, therefore, take turns to hold the ritual on a major scale for the further expansion of this campaign in the regency,'€ he said.

Research by the Agricultural Technology School of Gadjah Mada University (UGM), Yogyakarta, has shown that 10 percent of the region'€™s garbage goes to irrigation channels.

'€œThe remaining 90 percent is burned, buried or discarded by residents in a waste dump [TPA],'€ said researcher Dede Sulaeman.

In Yogyakarta, the amount of rubbish sent to the TPA in Piyungan, Bantul, totals 450 to 500 tons daily, meaning that every day, about 50 tons find their way to rivers and agricultural areas.

Besides disturbing irrigation channels, inorganic waste entering paddy fields causes soil damage. Buried in soil and failing to degrade, such trash prevents plant roots from growing. In the soil, the rubbish will block water and ruin crops.

'€œFarmers have in fact been clearing their fields of waste. But after the removal of rubbish from the areas for proper irrigation, they will again be littered,'€ said Timbulharjo village Head Iskandar.

Large amounts of inorganic waste in paddy fields have lowered productivity. In the cleaner areas a long way from clogged irrigation channels, the production rate even reaches 7.5 tons of dried rice in the husk.

 '€œIn paddy fields close to irrigation channels where rubbish has kept piling up, the productivity of the crops is less than seven tons,'€ Iskandar said.

Procession: The clean-up ceremony was held along with a pre-planting ritual.

Offering: A gunungan tower of produce.

Good neighbors: Farmers from several nearby villages carrying gunungan and other offerings as part of the ceremony.

'€” Photos by jp/Slamet Susanto