Farming youngsters
The founder of an agriculture-based social enterprise explains why it’s important for young people to re-connect with the land.
CENTRAL Kalimantan has been the subject of global attention for decades because of its tropical rainforest and rich biodiversity. Much of the news has concentrated on how its forests are being cut and degraded for timber, palm oil, pulp, rubber and minerals, resulting in the extinction of endemic animals such as the orang utan and hornbill. And then there are the raging forest and peat fires during the dry season.
Unfortunately, little is said about how these extractive industries have evicted local communities and eroded the livelihoods of natives like the Dayaks whose cultures and traditions are embedded in the forests.
In the past four years, I have seen an increasing number of young Dayaks in Central Kalimantan campaign to protect and reconnect with their indigenous culture and land. Over the years, these young people have united in organised movements to boldly raise their collective voices to the government and international community.
The celebration of International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples every Aug 9 has become an annual source of encouragement to highlight their struggles and gain wider support. Marching along city streets in traditional outfits, dancing traditional dances, with huge banners protesting palm oil, mining, and timber corporations, these movements proudly show their indigenous identity.
Encouragingly, some of us want to join such movements – however, we sometimes do so without truly understanding what we are fighting for or we end up fighting for values we ourselves do not embrace. Fighting against palm oil corporations while continuing to buy their products, for instance, reflects our dependence on the convenient modern lifestyle sustained by the industry. In fact, there is so much we can do to resist corporate penetration into our daily lives. One example is by reconnecting with farming to grow and make our own food or simply buying local produce from small-scale farmers.
I do not mean to undermine the complexity of the forestry issues, but rather look at how our lifestyles have been so disconnected from our tradition and cultures.
I am also not saying we have to completely resist modernisation, but rather we need to be selective and ensure we do not forget our roots. For instance, we face the loss of intergenerational knowledge of farming amidst a rapidly-modernising society.
In rural Kalimantan, we have fewer local farmers with the ability and expertise to produce food at adequate levels. As a result, the majority of the population relies heavily on a food supply from other regions like Java, and also imported products. The price of these products, unfortunately, are often beyond the reach of many.
Kalimantan used to have a very strong food security and independent farming was part of the population’s identity. One cause to this problem is poor transfer of skills and knowledge to subsequent generations; young people today rarely or never engage in farming.
In an effort to foster more interest in farming and reconnect young people with their ancestors’ traditions and cultures, we recently held agricultural training activities in Tangkiling, Central Kalimantan. It was intensive training on sustainable agriculture inspired by Dayak wisdom and a regenerative approach of permaculture, or efforts to design an agricultural system based on patterns observed in the ecosystem.
This programme is part of the project called “Bringing farming back to the village community in Borneo” (Bravo). Bravo aims to re-introduce farming knowledge to young people in Central Kalimantan to preserve cultures and ensure local food security.
Today, many people in Central Kalimantan complain they cannot buy food despite available land. This shows the changing value of land; people no longer see land as a source of life or life itself – a philosophy the Dayaks seem to be forgettng. This means our relationship with land needs to be re-defined by reconnecting with our ancestral values and practices.
The training session’s participants consisted of 20 young people from across Central Kalimantan. The programme is funded by the Student Engagement Grant Programme of the University of Melbourne in Australia and works with local organisations such as Permakultur Kalimantan, RanselBuku, and HandepHaruei. The last is an agriculture-based startup dedicated to produce and preserve local and forest-based produce, such as fruits and vegetables and herbs and spices.
The participants learned about local traditions and culture related to agriculture, redefined the profession of farmers, regenerative agriculture, composting, and the importance of local food security and climate change.
They also had the opportunity for some hands on field practice.
The programme hopes to help raise awareness in the younger generation about local wisdom, food security, environmental problems, waste management, and sustainable agriculture.
Upon the completion of the training, the participants helped to establish the Central Kalimantan Young Farmers Community. This community will work in two groups on two demonstration plots, in Petuk Katimpun village and Palangkaraya city.
Preserving indigenous culture and traditions is not only about preserving languages, clothing and dances; it goes beyond the physical or mere materialism.
Such traditions would eventually be deeply enmeshed in values and practices that we often forget. Thus, reconnecting the old and younger generation is a crucial first step towards fostering a sense of pride and belonging in our forgotten culture and traditions amidst a rapidly-globalising world. – The Jakarta Post/Asia News Network
Randi Julian Miranda founded the HandepHaruei, an agriculture-based social enterprise in Central Kalimantan, dedicated to producing, preserving and creating added value to locally-grown and forest-based produce to encourage locally-sensitive economic development. He is currently undertaking his postgraduate study in sustainable development at the University of Melbourne, Australia.