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Tobacco farmers on the brink after Mt. Raung eruption
Thousands of tobacco farmers in Jember, East Java, have been struggling to market their harvest yields this year after their plants were completely or partly damaged by the recent eruptions of Mount Raung
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housands of tobacco farmers in Jember, East Java, have been struggling to market their harvest yields this year after their plants were completely or partly damaged by the recent eruptions of Mount Raung.
Speaking to The Jakarta Post on Thursday, 49-year-old Suwarno, a farmer of Na Oogst tobacco in Balung district, said previous harvests had fetched Rp 8 million (US$542) per quintal. Now, 2 tons of newly harvested tobacco leaves from Suwarno's 1-hectare field lie idle in his barn, with buyers staying away.
'I was lucky that I still could harvest the tobacco, even though no one's bought it. Other farmers just let their tobacco rot in their fields because they couldn't afford to harvest it,' he said.
Suwarno, who leads the Jember branch of the Association of Indonesian Tobacco Farmers (APTI), said he had spent some Rp 75 million on planting and maintaining his tobacco plants before the 3,332-meter Mt. Raung, located on the border between Jember, Bondowoso and Banyuwangi regencies, erupted several times between early July and late August.
'Most of the tobacco plants affected by the eruptions were planted in May and June. They were exposed to volcanic ash from the eruptions starting from July,' he said.
Suwarno estimates that the volcano's eruptions affected some 1,900 ha of Na Oogst tobacco plantation and 4,900 ha of Vor Oogst tobacco plantation in the regency, one of the largest tobacco-producing areas in the country.
Abdurrachman, a Vor Oogst tobacco farmer from Pakusari district, has a similar story.
With volcanic ash from Mt. Raung coating his tobacco leaves, a harvest once priced at Rp 4 million per quintal has plummeted to between Rp 300,000 and Rp 500,000 per quintal.
'That's if anyone's even willing to buy it,' Abdurrachman said.
A sample taken recently by a local cigarette company, he said, had revealed that every 3 kilograms of tobacco leaves from his field contained around 300 grams of volcanic ash.
As the country's largest tobacco-producing province, East Java produces around 85,000 tons of the total national production of 150,000 tons annually.
Following evidence that Mt. Raung's volcanic activity was slowing, local authorities reduced the volcano's alert status to Level 2 on Aug. 24.
Volcano alerts range from Level 1 to Level 4, with 1 being the lowest and 4 the highest.
Earlier this month, Deputy East Java Governor Saifullah Yusuf claimed to have been unaware of the losses suffered by Jember's tobacco farmers and promised to visit the regency to monitor the situation in person.
A recent meeting involving local authorities, farmers and exporters ended, according to Suwarno, in deadlock after the exporters that usually bought tobacco from the farmers decided not to buy Na Oogst tobacco and only to buy Vor Oogst tobacco under strict conditions.
Abdurrachman, meanwhile, has asked the government to intervene by, for example, providing compensatory aid to farmers, whom he said could be considered victims of natural disaster.
'We ask the government to be fair. Most of the farmers depend on this year's yield for next year's production costs. Without compensation or aid, how will they survive?'.
