Expert helps bring focus back to Bali’s farmers

JAKARTA: In Bali, an island where tourism has been a dominant economic and sociological force for decades, agriculture has increasingly become a forgotten sector.

Consequently, local farmers have to deal with a growing number of challenges to stay relevant.

Agricultural Technology Assessment Agency (BBPT) researcher I Wayan Alit Artha Wiguna has been working on several initiatives to assist those farmers.

Alit, who has been with the agency for over 30 years, introduced a rice intensification system to farmers at Wongaya Betan in Tabanan, Bali, to increase productivity.

With expert Stephen Lansing, Alit drafted the academic text that played a critical role in the inclusion of subak, Bali’s ancient paddyfield irrigation system, on Unesco’s World Heritage List in 2012.

The inclusion prompted local administration to set several subak as conservation sites, prohibiting the conversion of rice fields into construction or tourism facilities.

Rp600mil (RM173,500) was also invested by him to set up a chocolate factory at his birthplace, the village of Cau in Tabanan, some 35 kilometers west of Denpasar.

“Indonesia is the world’s thirdlargest cacao bean producer, yet it does not translate into smiles for our cacao farmers” he said.

“Our vision involves creating an economic platform for the village to flourish,” Cau Chocolates director Surya Prestya Wiguna said, adding that Cau Chocolates was the only chocolate company on the island fully-owned by Balinese.