As part of the ongoing course I’m taking with Wageningen University, through their newly launched LightHouse Farms academy, I joined their practical module in Indonesia to learn more about how we can integrate smallholder farmers into regenerative systems that thrive in increasing complexity while working with nature.
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The challenge of complex systems in rice production is not new to me. When I started my journey into food systems, before launching Meraki Impact, I worked as a volunteer project manager for an NGO in Cambodia that provided microfinance loans to smallholder rice farmers. The promising solution I found online back then was introducing ducks to the rice fields to create a symbiotic interaction between the animals and the rice. The ducks, released at the right age and at the right stage of rice maturity, would contribute to pest control, fertilize the rice paddies, and handle most of the weeding work typically done by farmers in conventional monoculture. I remember seeing inspiring videos from Indonesia back then that took this complexity even further, and now I had the opportunity to visit the successful project led by Dra. Uma Khumairoh from Brawijaya University in East Java. Dra.
Uma completed her PhD at Wageningen University, studying the complex rice system and observing how productivity and crop resilience changed as more complexity was introduced. In Indonesian complex rice systems, in addition to ducks, fish, azolla, and border nitrogen-fixing plants are added, with variations depending on regional practices, climate, and paddy conditions. She found that increasing the complexity of the rice system with these ecologically supportive elements could provide more climate resilience to the rice fields, increase production, and eliminate the need for pesticides and most chemical fertilizers. While going fully organic sometimes resulted in slightly lower yields, the income per hectare rose significantly as more products came out of the rice field, contributing to farmer income and food security. In many cases, the revenue from duck meat or eggs alone was enough to offset any loss in rice yield, even with the local Indonesian market not paying premiums for organic or agroecological rice.
Looking at her findings, one might think that scaling complex rice systems among smallholder farmers in Indonesia would be a logical step, especially as more and more farmers joined farm schools to learn the techniques and observed their neighbors’ success. Unfortunately, the reality is far more complicated. During the week, we had the opportunity to visit local farmers in communities where neighbors practiced entirely different methods. Some were adopters and enthusiasts of the complex rice system, while others had tried it but reverted back to monoculture, and some had always been conventional growers with insufficient incentives to change their farming practices. In some cases, neighbors within the same community, farming less than 100 meters apart, used totally different practices and never visited each other’s fields. With the help of our fellow Indonesian classmates as translators, we tried to investigate further by asking the farmers questions.
The first couple we interviewed, who had been practicing complex rice farming for many years, were confused by our barrage of questions about how much money they were making and whether revenue was the driving force behind their choice of the complex rice system. In a beautiful lesson of “enoughness,” the lady farmer told us she sold the rice for the money she needed and some of the ducks, but the rest of the vegetables, fish, and fruits she produced she gave away to her neighbors. “I have enough,” she said, looking very puzzled by our question about how much money she could make if she added up all the products she was producing on her less than one hectare. Other farmers we interviewed, who had switched back to conventional monoculture, said their superior rice was not valued by the market, and the price paid for it was the same as for conventional rice, not enough to compensate for the work required to transition practices. Conventional growers acknowledged that pests and climate were their main concerns, and all had experienced significant losses. In contrast, the complex rice practitioners reported that while they might not achieve the same yield as their neighbors during a good harvest, they also didn’t lose as much during a bad one, and their pest problems were drastically reduced with the help of their ducks and fish. It was also interesting to note that the farmers practicing the complex rice system paid special attention to detail and viewed their work as more of a craft than just a job to earn a living.
The transition challenges become even more complex when we consider water management. Farmers in the same community share the same water resources, and the chemicals used by one neighbor eventually end up in another’s field, ruling out any possibility of organic certification. At the end of the day, the farmers who stuck with the complex rice system had deeper reasons than money for doing so. This is where the complexity of society intersects with farming practices. Cultural dynamics play an important role beneath the surface, and it takes a special breed of entrepreneurial farmers to take on the challenge of changing the way they farm, adding more complexity to their fields. While market forces can certainly generate incentives, there’s a lot more nuance. Dra. Uma, while establishing her complex rice system schools, found that it takes more than just a one-time training session. Farmers need to be engaged over at least three harvests, and taking them away from their fields for a learning experience is no easy task. Women often feel excluded from schools that are predominantly for men, so she had to be creative in including other family members. The pace of the lessons had to be adjusted to match only the crucial moments of the complex rice cycle, with plenty of room to listen to the farmers and adjust the system to the realities of each community.
After visiting the communities, we ended our week with a visit to one of the largest rice processors in Indonesia, a global company listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange that, in order to tackle low yields and the quality of their supply chain, created their own farmer engagement program. Being the offtaker of only rice, there is little room to discuss the benefits of a complex rice system with these large buyers. As with the government of Indonesia, the most important metric is productivity—how can rice farmers increase their productivity and, by doing so, increase their income? They believe the organic rice market is too small for the size of their operations, and their quality control is more concerned with post-harvest processes to get the best possible product ready to be milled in their massive facilities. Although the company has made admirable progress in circular economy practices, using all the by-products of rice, even powering their facility partially with the rice husks that were previously waste, their main concern with productivity highlighted what is in their opinion the key issue farmers face: limited access to chemical fertilizers and quality seeds. Their program contracts directly with farm communities, providing them with the necessary chemical inputs and seeds, taking these costs out of the final product when it is delivered. For the farmers, it’s a guaranteed offtake agreement with capable technical assistance and access to the best chemical inputs, but the price is their total dependence on seeds and inputs from their only client, locking them in as purely a source of labor in the rice process. The program has a noble concern for farmer income, providing access to insurance and the entire industrial value chain, but it only took one meeting with the farmers in the program for the community leader to voice their desire to produce their own seeds.
The entanglement we experienced that week in the rice supply chain mirrors the challenges we face with other commodities on the other side of the world. Large companies step in to secure a sustainable supply chain, with farmers giving away their independence to be locked into industrial schemes that promise higher income. The big question we are failing to address is not about yield, but resilience. Climate change has turned the table on conventional monoculture farming, and everyone is still hoping Syngenta or Monsanto will be able to keep industrial agriculture visible by developing the newest climate-resilient GMO seed. Often, the finger is pointed at the government. In Indonesia, the country faced a harvest loss due to drought of close to one million tons last year, and the government stepped in to increase infrastructure and make irrigation more widely available. My question is, what happens when the drought problem becomes a flood problem, as we witnessed in the south of Brazil? The complex rice system has the potential to provide farmers with a tool that promotes collaboration with nature, stabilizing yields and income, and making farms less vulnerable to climate shocks. Unfortunately, the Green Revolution is still alive and well throughout the supply chain, pulling all incentives towards monoculture, higher yields, and productivity. The insurance companies would likely be the first to raise concerns as we watch climate change disrupt monoculture, with little concern for farm communities and government targets. I asked the director of the rice facility what happened when the harvest was 20% lower last year. He said they had to import rice from Thailand. He hoped that with the new irrigation infrastructure projects promoted by the government, the problem would be less of a risk in the future. I, on the other hand, hope that nutrient density information becomes measurable and transparent, so consumers begin to realize the huge difference between rice grown in complex systems and conventional milled white rice. Maybe then we can start having a serious discussion about price per nutrient and real incentives for farmers.
To learn more and join the Wageningen Lighthouse Farms Academy access the link below
https://www.wur.nl/en/show/lighthouse-farm-academy.htm
To read more about Dra Uma’s research on complex rice systems access the link below
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-32915-z
