Changing Realities— Perspectives on Balinese Rice Cultivation

Author(s): Rachel P. Lorenzen and Stephan Lorenzen

Source: Human Ecology , FEBRUARY 2011, Vol. 39, No. 1, Studies of the Subak: New
Directions, New Challenges (FEBRUARY 2011), pp. 29-42
Published by: Springer

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Hum Ecol (2011) 39:29-42
DOI 1 0. 1 007/s 1 0745-0 1 0-9345-z

Changing Realities - Perspectives on Baiinese

Rice Cultivation

Rachel P. Lorenzen • Stephan Lorenzen

Published online: 17 August 2010

© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010

Introduction
Abstract This paper discusses issues of agrarian change in
south-central Bali. The proximity to urban areas, especially
the tourist centers along the southern coast, provides This
many paper focuses on the impact of agrarian change on on-
off-farm employment opportunities for small-scale farming
farm and off-farm1 labor patterns of rice farming house-
households. Although rice farming continues, for many
holds in south-central Bali. Agrarian change in Southeast
households it has become a side business. The flexible Asia began at the time of the Green Revolution as a process
nature of rice farming in terms of labor input and available
of transition which lastingly altered former exclusively
casual off-farm work allows farming households to allocate
agrarian societies and economies. Agriculture has become
less important as other industries developed. The emer-
their available labor to a variety of on-farm and off-farm
income generating activities. The subak which unites
gence of non-agricultural industries and rapid urbanization
farmers in the irrigation and cultivation of the riceopened
crop new pathways for Southeast Asian farming com-
plays an important role in supporting this flexibility.munities
Still, to diversify their livelihoods. Simultaneously, with
the future of rice farming and the organization behind it
the introduction of Green Revolution technology packages
looks rather dim with a younger generation unwilling to late 1960s agricultural systems were modernized. As
in the
a consequence agricultural systems have become more
work in the "mud" and little appreciation of the many
benefits the subak provides not only to the farming productive
but to and farming communities generally better off as
the wider community. they now participate in a wider, richer and more powerful
economy (Harriss 1982: 16-7, 37; Elson 1997: 238).
Keywords Rice cultivation • Agrarian change • In Bali, too, agrarian change and agricultural modern-
Household labor • Subak • Off-farm work • Indonesia • ization have had their lasting impacts on the farming
Paddy rice community. With the introduction of high yielding
varieties, chemical fertilizers and improved labor-saving

1 By on-farm work we mean work in relation to attending farm

animals, the cultivation of sharecropped and owned rice fields
R. P. Lorenzen (ISI) • S. Lorenzen
including work for the subak as well as ritual and ceremonial activities
Resource Management in Asia-Pacific Program,
pertaining to and integral to all of these tasks. Work for the subak
College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University,
comprises attendance at meetings, preparations and attendance of
Canberra, Australia
ceremonies as well as operation and maintenance work on irrigation
e-mail: rachel.p.lorenzen@anu.edu.au
infrastructure. Off-farm work relates to any other work - community
S. Lorenzen based and household income generating - that does not derive from
e-mail : Stephan, lorenzen@anu.edu. au means on the farm.

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 30 Hum Ecol (2011) 39:29-42

Table 1 Major farming house-

hold Household activities On-farm Off-farm
activities

Income generating • Rice cultivation Off-farm casual or permanent

employment:
• Animal husbandry • Agricultural wage labor
• Non-agricultural wage labor
Non-income • Religious and secular household Communal obligations towards:
generating management
• Subak communal work • Extended family
• Agricultural rituals - preparation • Hamlet
and execution . Village temple congregation

technologies such as rice mills, handheld tractors and Similar shifts have been noted in other Southeast Asian
commercial forms of harvesting Balinese irrigated riceregions. Hayami and Kikuchi (2000: 234-35), for example,
cultivation considerably changed. Communal labor-show that in a rice farming village in the Philippines
sharing arrangements paid in-kind to meet peak laborhousehold income from farming declined from 90% to 36%
demands were replaced by paid labor groups. Balinesefrom 1974 to 1996, while the share of off-farm income rose
farmers intensified rice cultivation from two to five cropsfrom 13% to 64%. Foster and Rosenzweig (2004: 517-18)
of rice in a two-year period with yields continuously on show that between 1971 and 1999 the share of off-farm
the rise.2 Both land and labor productivity substantially income of Indian farming households rose from 19% to
increased which freed up time for farm laborers to work48%. Molle et al. (2001) note the trend in Thailand to
off-farm. occupational diversity with 57% of farming households
At about the same time as the Green Revolution having multiple occupations.
The diversification of the rural household workforce has
packages arrived, systematic promotion of Bali as a mass
tourism destination began.3 Tourism developed rapidly,
entailed a number of demographic changes. Skeldon (1999),
for example, notes the trend to an aging rural community
from 5,000 foreign visitors arriving at Bali's international
airport per year in 1968 to more than 5,000 tourists and
perthe
dayresulting future problem of insufficient farm labor.
40 years later (Wall 1996; BPS Bali 2010b). Given the and Molle (2004) and Rigg (1998) discuss the high
Barker
ever-increasing stream of tourists, the Balinese economy
inter-sector labor mobility and migration out of agriculture as
prospered and new off-farm employment opportunitiesfarmers are responding to new employment opportunities.
These
directly and indirectly related to tourism arose (Table l).4developments can also be observed in Bali. Better off-
farm working conditions - such as regular working hours
With time freed up and off-farm employment opportu-
and fixed monthly wages - as well as the stigma of
nities available, contemporary farming is less important
remaining
within the total farming household economy. Agriculture as a "dirty, uneducated farmer" cause Balinese,
particularly the younger generation, to move away from
source of employment becomes only one of many options
(OECD 2001; Barker and Molle 2004). In Bali, there is a
agriculture leaving an aging farming community.
clear shift of the labor force from agriculture to Although
non- many move away from agriculture, the persis-
agricultural industries: while the agricultural labortence
force
of part-time farming households earning a living from
decreased from 61% in 1976 to 36% in 2008, theboth
trade
on-farm and off-farm activities is becoming one of the
emergent trajectories of agrarian change in Southeast Asia
industry, which includes part of the tourism industry,
increased its labor share from 12% in 1976 to 24% in
(Rigg 1998, 2003; Eder 1999; Francks 2005). Part-time
2008 (Bendesa and Sukarsa 1980; BPS Bali 2010a).5 farming is possible because peak demands for agricultural
labor are short-term and seasonal.
A general pattern in Bali is that the younger, better
2 Bali presently harvests 5.8 tons of rice per hectare, which is educated
above generation pursues regular off-farm work, while
the national average of 5 tons per hectare (BPS Indonesia 2010).
the older generation combines on-farm activities with casual
3 In the early 1970s the Indonesian government implemented a first
Master plan for tourism development in Bali which included, off-farm
for work. A study undertaken in West Java observed
similar
example, the construction of major resorts in the island's south and work arrangements where 73 out of 82 villagers
road network extensions (Picard 1996). engaged in casual work while nine worked in permanent off-
4 Employment indirectly related to tourism is in those industries which
farm positions (Breman and Wiradi 2002). Although there is
produce goods used in the tourist industry, such as the building or
textile industries. a risk with casual off-farm work of perpetuating a farming
household's
5 The trade industry includes wholesale and retail trade, hotels and low economic status, it nevertheless allows for
restaurants. the necessary flexibility to shift household labor in and out

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 Hum Ecol (2011) 39:29-42 31

of December 2005,
agriculture using participant observation, semi-
according to
sufficient off-farm work,
structured interviews with public this
servants and subak heads,
allocation surveys with farmers and
provides forsubak heads, detailed
a time-use
more
dependent on surveys of three farming households, and focus group
agricultural seaso
Amidst this discussions with farmers.
transformation of
questions arise
Duringabout how
this period, we lived in one cont
of the nearby villages
organize labor in in the
and participated local village life. cultivati
We also sharecropped
whether a rice fieldare
there of 0.2 ha for two cultivation seasonsimplica
any with the
organizations. As
help of local farming Rigg
households and engaged in the(20
household members to
communal activities required non-farm
by the subak .
agricultural production are ke
We here follow up Rigg's
farming Contemporary Rice Cultivation
households' in South-Central Bali
strategies
around the world as a tourist p
landscaped The area terraces.
rice devoted to irrigated rice fields in Bali today is
There are two
around 82,000 major
ha, which is approximately a compo
quarter of the
understanding
total agricultural
contemporary
land (BPS Bali 2010c). The six subaks of
farming interest are located at theas
household southern tip
the of the rice bowl
main
Balinese irrigation society
where the highest rice yields of Bali are achieved. The rice call
the deliveryfields of water
within the boundaries to
of the six subaks , a total area of th
cooperative 750 ha, areinstitutional
and cultivated by 1,700 farming households with fr
holds to obligatory membership.
maintain the Each subak is subdivided into
collectiv
structure. several sub-unitshousehold
Every called munduks with an average size of tha
of the subak in which their field is located. Subaks are 15 ha for organizational and maintenance purposes. Each
considered to be one of the most effective hydraulic munduk consists of around 35 members who each cultivate
organizations in the world (Geertz 1972, 1980; Sutawan on average 0.44 ha of land. The majority of the farming
et al. 1990; Lansing 1991, 2006; Ostrom 1992). households are owners (58%) who cultivate a single field in
We argue that Balinese farming households showone anof the six subaks. The remaining households are either
incredible flexibility in allocating their household labortenants
to (28%) or owner-tenants (14%), who cultivate on
diverse income generating activities on and off-farm. Workaverage larger areas of land and often across several
relating to rice cultivation only peaks at certain times ofmunduks
the or subaks.
season and is accommodated with household and outsourced Each subak maintains and operates their irrigation
labor depending on availability of intra-household labor andnetwork almost independently.6 The fields are irrigated by
type of work. Labor requirements towards the subak tend toa single dam which conveys water from a nearby river into
be minimal and thus are managed with household labor. By a series of hierarchically bifurcating canals to each subak
balancing and shifting on-farm labor requirements betweenand munduk. The general irrigation structure, built upon
household members, rice farmers are able to embrace simple principles as fixed permanent weirs, requires
agrarian change without abandoning irrigated agriculture.minimal operational and maintenance input (Horst 1996).
In doing so, they keep the subak institutional framework Communal labor duties only include operation and renova-
alive. The subak offers the adaptable structure which istion works on canals and weirs on the subak and munduk
necessary to fit the different needs of its members. level. Irrigation work on the field level is undertaken by
We examine these issues through the use of a case study of faming households individually when necessary.7 Members
six subaks with a membership base of 1,700 farming are also obliged to partake in religious activities and regular
households in a densely populated semi-rural region of
south-central Bali. The heavily urbanized areas of Denpasar,
the capital city, and the rapidly developing tourist center6 As part of the Green Revolution large infrastructural improvement
work was undertaken (Bali Irrigation Project), especially in lowland
extending from Kuta along the coast to the north are 45 min
areas, which merged several subaks to share a single dam. With the
drive away by motorbike. The 1,700 farming households andnew arrangements in place shared structures which include the dam at
members of the six subaks - who represent approximately athe river, the main canal and a diversion weir to the different subaks ,
quarter of the inhabitants in the surrounding villages - areare now maintained and operated by the public works department.
(For more details on the consequences of these changes see Lorenzen
engaged in a number of on-farm and off-farm activities. and Lorenzen 2005.)
Our data were gathered during 18 months of field 7 With fixed permanent structures in place operation and maintenance
research in the study area, between July 2004 and is minimal as infrastructural modifications are not permitted.

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 32 Hum Ecol (2011) 39:29-42

meetings in was 54.5 years. In most casesamongst

which, their children had married oth
are determined.8 Communal
(taking over the main responsibility for the household) or l
subaks of the were old enough to earn their own
study living. Many of theare
area older lim
percultivation cycle
generation stop working which
off-farm and devote their time i
female heads entirely to on-farm
of activities when household finances
household, agai
and type of allow. These on-farm activities
activity also include livestock
required.
The 1,700 husbandry for which households
farming a considerable amount of time is
or several of needed to gather
the six fodder. It is expected, however, that
subaks livethe
with a male head of household
population of and his wife participate in the60
between
community inphysically
these exhausting work in the rice fields even if they
villages rep
of the total engage in off-farm of
number activities.househol
If both male head of
villages. household and his wife spend much time in off-farm
employment then the physically more strenuous tasks are
outsourced to wage laborers. This seems to be especially
Labor Requirements in Today's Irrigated Rice Cultivation the case where off-farm work arrangements are less
flexible, as with permanent employment.
Most work on-farm is managed by the farming household. Recruiting workers is a very flexible process. There are
However, at certain stages of the rice cultivation cycle no strict rights to employment, or for cooperation between
additional labor is required. Before the introduction of kin-related households or friends. Nonetheless, there is an
new technologies, peak labor requirements during soil unwritten rule that farmers who need wage laborers for
preparation, weeding, transplanting and harvesting, were transplanting and weeding should hire female working
met by the use of hamlet-based communal labor-sharing groups from the same hamlet. Only in times of labor
arrangements. Nowadays, many Balinese farming house- shortage will farmers seek hired hands outside their own
holds resort to outsourcing such work to paid labor hamlet. Usually the women of the hiring household go
depending on their financial capacities and household around asking their friends or working teams if they are
labor availability (Fig. 1). available. Then a day and a price are negotiated. Normally,
The cultivation season from soil preparation to harvest is household members work alongside the recruited additional
around 19 weeks or between 110 and 115 days, involving workers, again depending on household labor availability.
391.5 h of household labor and 242 h of outsourced labor, As a general principle, the older generation in the
which averages to about three household labor hours and household undertakes the routine work which has to be
1.8 outsourced labor hours a day. Labor input peaks in done every day. This includes monitoring plant health and
weeks six, eight and eleven, and then again between weeks water level in the field as well as general maintenance of
16 and 19, with more than 50 h work required per week irrigation canals and dykes. This kind of labor is less
(Fig. 1). There are low labor input periods during strenuous, and requires between 1 and 2 h a day. It can be
cultivation where hardly any work is required apart from done at any time of the day and is often combined with
monitoring crop health and water levels. gathering fodder for the cattle.
In terms of allocating farm household labor versus paid The scaring of birds during the rice grain ripening period
labor, the data show that tasks requiring physically-intense is an important factor in reducing crop damage and
labor in peak periods of the cultivation cycle - such as increasing the selling price even though it is the most
plowing, transplanting, weeding and harvesting - are out- time-consuming stage of the cultivation cycle (Fig. 1). This
sourced to hired wage labor teams.9 The remaining work work is undertaken by household members and cannot be
which is more flexible and less physically exhausting but outsourced because it would cost too much money. Our
often needs more time is carried out by available members observations during our own bird scaring activities suggest
of the farming household. that younger household members participate in this activity
It is notable in contemporary rice cultivation that farmers in the morning before they leave for their off-farm work
in the rice fields on a daily basis are usually older and in the evening after work until sundown. In between,
household members. The average age of the 178 farmers the older household members take over and sometimes
we interviewed in the fields at different times of the day teenage children fill in, if necessary.10

8 Balinese subaks have become famous for their meticulous planning

of planting schedules to reduce pests and share water equally among 10 Teenagers are rarely seen working in the rice fields. Parents and
up- and downstream subaks (Lansing 1991, 2006). children alike see education as the key to good and permanent off-
9 Payment is in cash and calculated by day or unit size worked. farm employment.

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Hum Ecol (201 1 ) 39:29-42 33

Fig. 1
example Anof how
hectares a
(The contem
prese
typically different
organizes upcoming househol
work f
household and paid labor
verified for
throughan av
dis

The major outsourced

Transplanting
labor acti
an
planting, times
weeding and during the
harvesting.
workers who requires
operate a planning
hand-held tr
works his way and on a
through particula
the suba
bottom-most field
the in each
Balinese mu
calen
representatives before
make chemical
sure that f
th
tractor arrives weeds
to assist
fromwith wa
profit
with the tractor has drastically re
14 The transplanting
by the subak head,
11 The hiring of members
the then tracto
hand-held have
through the this window.
munduk but paid by each
12 The six subaks 15
inThe Balinese
the calendar system
study is a complex overlay
area of several stag
time interval of 3calendars
weeks based on solar, lunar
to and ritual cycles which combined
avoid water
For more on rotational
together determine auspiciouscropping,
days for specific activities related to life see
13 While a in general but also to the tractor
hand-held cultivation of rice and animal husbandry.
can plo
half a day, it 16 Fields are weeded
takes up three times
to during 2the cultivation
days period: once to d
cattle. In addition, cattle
shortly before and twice after (aroundneed15 days and around 40 to days) be
work itself is transplanting seedlings.
physically more strenuo

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 34

on the availabilit
oneself from communal labor commitments, and with other
employs betwee
member households living in the immediate vicinity evasion
or work shirking becomes even harder,17
Harvesting is so in general
outs
although
households make sure that commo
they send a representative to these
events.
household to cov
the next harvest.
Subak assemblies take place between one to four times a
Ceremonial
year - again varying from subak to subak - pre and play an
which are regula
important role in the administration of contemporary
exclusively organ
subaks . Meetings are held for 2-3 h in the evening. Some
On-farm work
subaks in the research area organize meetings on the
members depend
munduk level only. These meetings are conducted immedi-
off-farm work.
ately after communal maintenance work projects.
(elderlyCeremonies are held to mark particular stages of the
persons
work, there
growing are
rice plant. In the research area farming households
commonly perform seven
strenuous ceremonies for one cultivation
work,
off-farm labor.
cycle. The majority of participants are female household
persons
members. or childr
Ceremonies on the subak level, in which every
farm farming household is obliged to durin
work participate, are only
first 15performed in weeks
the main cultivation season (kerta masa) and o
case, casual
consist of five ceremonies organized byoff-f
the subak head, plus
this one on the inter-subak level. The subaks
kind of in the research area w
adapted to
use different on-fa
systems to organize the ceremonies and the
no elderly memb
preparation of offerings. Some use a rotational system in
permanently off
which a munduk is responsible for preparing the ceremonies
over much of
for one cultivation cycle. In others, the
the subak leader together
hard with the munduk
or hazardou leaders and their wives make the
and preparations. In one subak, the leader employed a few
harvesting, w
off days or
women from his hamlet on
for the preparations so that no labor h
In summary,
input from subak members was required. far
gies in The way the subak ceremonies are organized is decided
pursuing
skills by all subak members in a democratic
base and election at the
casual or perman
assembly. The conduct of the assembly reveals that subak
the necessary str
members undertake to reduce their obligatory labor inputs
of its members.
to a minimum without abandoning or weakening the subak.
They have a strong belief that the ceremonies are of utmost
importance for the well-being and proper functioning of the
Labor and the Subak subak , but do not think that their personal involvement is
necessary for those activities. If the ceremonial preparation
is outsourced
It is interesting that because all subak members participate in to paid workers, then preparation costs are
born by subak funds - naturally this has to be agreed upon
labor-intensive tasks, mainly irrigation infrastructure operation
and maintenance, labor requirements for the subak are meeting.
at a subak
All in all, members of the six subaks which were part
marginal. Each subak requires obligatory communal commit-
of on
ments between three to five times a year, which last this research spend on average only 2 days per
average half a day and consist of communal maintenance
cultivation cycle in joint labor and other activities. It is
work, meetings and preparation and attendance of ceremonies.
therefore not surprising that subak obligations are not seen
as a burden by members. To the contrary, they regard
Communal labor assignments are organized by munduk
communal
leaders in consultation with the subak head and usually fall labor input as a reduction to actual labor
on a Sunday. All obligatory communal labor requirements
requirements for individuals. Such minimal labor input,
are calculated on the basis of how much land a household the older farmers say, was not the case before the dam and
cultivates, so households with more land contribute morethe primary canal were reconstructed using concrete. The
than one member to communal assignments. Members not dam had been built out of palm trees, boulders, sand and dirt
attending communal labor work are fined. There is still,
however, a strong stigma attached to repeatedly absenting17 See also Lorenzen et al (2005).

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 Hum Ecol (201 1) 39:29-42 35

and had to be The household cultivates 0.35 ha of

repaired rice terraces in two
regularly
was also the different subaks
case for of whichthe
they own 0.15 shared
ha in one subak p
places, and sharecrop
regularly 0.2 ha in the other.20 They
eroded due usually sell to
the he
a concrete dam, concrete
yield of the divisio
sharecropped area and harvest their own fields
much less for household consumption.labor
communal Because they are located
is in req
The subak, therefore, impinges
two different subaks the cultivation cycles of the two fields
household's labor
are usually about contribution
3-4 weeks apart. Although they say that
lates they manage
individual the rice fields together, itlabor
terrace is Kak Renda who m
farming household
puts in the main labor. enough free
tural labor to The household is basically
other engaged in four major
income-gene
many categories
farming of activities in their daily life: on-farm and rice
households,
side business.
off-farm Because rice
income and non-income generating activities cu
whole households,
(Figs. 2, 3 and 4).21the work
Major on-farm income generating on
one householdactivities are rice cultivation and animal husbandry
member to (two anot
labor commitments of individual members.
cattle and two pigs). Major on-farm non-income generat-
The minimal influence of the subak on farming house-ing activities include communal subak work obligations
hold's decision making in terms of rice cultivation andand ritual activities related to agriculture and household-
allocation of labor is not necessarily a new phenomenon. welfare. Off-farm income generating activities include
What is new is that communal labor arrangements on thecasual or permanent employment off-farm either on other
terrace level have been replaced by hired and paid work- farms or non-agricultural. Off-farm non-income generating
groups. Thus, irrigation and cultivation of rice have to beactivities include communal obligations towards the
seen as quite distinct matters in organizational terms. extended family (kinship group) and towards the hamlet
and the village (Table 1). The obligations towards the
community are divided according to gender among the
An Example of Household Labor Allocation household members.
to On- and Off-farm Activities Pak Renda's focus is on off-farm work (Fig. 2). In all
but two of the weeks analyzed he devoted between 50%
and 80% of his time to off-farm income and non-income
The Renda household consists of six members1 8: Pak (father)
Renda is the only son of Kak (grandfather) and Nenek generating activities. Off-farm, he spends most of his time
(grandmother) Renda. He has two sisters who are married
working as a carpenter and joiner at construction sites and
and who - as is the custom in Bali - left their natal in a joiner's workshop. He is also employed on a casual
compound to live in the compounds of their husbands. Pakby a builder who lives in the same hamlet. He gets
basis
paid
Renda and his wife Ibu (mother) Renda, 37 and 35 years daily if he works for shorter periods of time (a couple
old,
have two children. The daughter, Putu Renda, is 13 years old
and attends the local junior high school. The son, Made, is
10 years old and goes to the local primary school. 20 They cultivate a smaller area compared to the average owner-tenant
Once all their children were married, Kak and Nenek (0.67
Rendaha).
21 The
gave up their own household and joined the household ofdata for these figures is derived from a detailed time-use survey
over a period of five-month complemented with our own observations,
their son and his family, who live in the same compound.
experiences cultivating a rice field, and personal communication with
After they married, Pak and Ibu Renda became the the
active
survey participants. We asked participants to individually record
representatives of their household in the hamlet and their
village
daily activities divided into 30 min brackets on a daily basis for
the previous day. For the analysis we coded the data into seven main
and share the main responsibilities for all household members
categories: on-farm production activities; off-farm production activi-
and for household income and expenditures. Kak and Nenek
ties; management of household; care of family members; community
Renda have retired from main household responsibilities andand help to other households; social and cultural activities;
services
hamlet and village communal obligations, although they
and still
personal care and self maintenance. All categories contained
participate in on-farm and residential household several
labor sub-categories, each of which was again subdivided. On-farm
production activities, for example, were broken down into seven sub-
activities as much as their age permits.19
categories: rice field activities; animal husbandry, dry land activities;
processing and storage (for own use); construction, maintenance and
18 All names appearing in this text are changed. operation of farm infrastructure; manufacturing activities; and on-farm
19 Nenek Renda is marginally involved in on-farm activities because
religious activities. Each of these sub-categories was broken down
she suffers from serious gout and migraine. Occasionally, she into even more categories, so that the main "category (on-farm
engages
production
in secular and religious household activities to support Ibu Renda and, activities) actually consisted of 76 different coded
activities.
if her health allows, she joins one of the hamlet-based labor groups for Figures 2, 3 and 4 in this paper represent a simplified
transplanting of weeding. version of the whole data set.

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 36 Hum Ecol (201 1 ) 39:29-42

Fig. 2 Labor allocation of male househ

of days), and on-farm activities have to be adjusted

weekly if according
he to his works
weeks). When there is
community obligations and current less work
available off-farm work. a
Renda helps out in
He attends all communal his
work sessions, sister's
which usually fall
assembles the onnewly-arrived
a Sunday (Fig. 2: 'on-farm non-income generating') fu
customers. reflecting the subaks adaptability to today's needs of its
As the male head of household, he has several commitments
members who maybe pursuing different types of casual or
towards the extended family, hamlet and village community
permanent off-farm work during the week.
(Fig. 2: 'off-farm no income'). These commitments include
A comparison of work share of the three adult household
participation in hamlet assemblies, hamlet working groups
members in the rice field (Fig. 5) shows that his work share
and village ceremonies. When larger village or hamlet
(in total 17%) increases slightly if there is harder work to do
as, for example, during soil preparation (32% of total soil
ceremonies take place, he reduces his off-farm labor to fulfill
his community obligations (Fig. 2: week three, four, fourteen,
preparation work), transplanting (40% of total transplanting
and eighteen). work) and again when the fields need weeding and application
Pak Renda also participates in the cultivation of rice of
and
fertilizer or pesticide ( 1 8% of total crop management work).
In times of water shortage, especially in the critical first
other on-farm activities (Fig. 2: 'on-farm income generat-
ing'). He is, however, only marginally involved in animal
2 weeks after transplanting, he and his father work out a
husbandry, and gathers fodder for the two cows and rotational
two schedule to make sure that water flow is monitored
pigs only if his father and his wife are otherwise busy.throughout
All day and night though his work commitment in

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 HumEcol (2011) 39:29^2

Fig. 3 Labor

Ibu Renda also works in construction. Like many other

monitoring
he couples, she and her husband met at a construction site in
usually d
Kuta, the mainto
needs tourist centre in Bali. While she
beused to work
Pak Renda
more off-farm before she had children, now she considers the
distance from home before she accepts a job because her
prioritized.
and priority lies in the management of the
the hamhousehold and services
to the village and hamlet community. In fact, three quarters
activities. He of
are married. Then he will reduce his off-farm work and her time is dedicated to the secular and religious welfare of the
increase his on-farm activities. At the moment, he argues, hishousehold and community obligations (Fig. 3: 'on-farm and
household is able to sharecrop 0.2 ha because his father is stilloff-farm non-income generating'). She does almost all the
healthy. Should Kak Renda however reduce his on-farm work domestic work such as shopping, cooking, washing and
cleaning. A considerable amount of her time each day is
in the near future, they will have to reduce their sharecropped
area as long as Pak Renda has sufficient off-farm work. allocated to the preparation of offerings for ceremonies at
household and community level. Within the household, there
are small ceremonies performed daily and larger ones on
22 Farmers go out at night and increase water flow into their own
frequently-occurring holy days. She also joins ceremonial
fields. This activity is called borrowing water, which is permitted to a
preparations at the hamlet and village level where married
certain extent. Stealing of water is not allowed. For more on
borrowing, see Lorenzen et al. (2005), and Lorenzen (2008). women are expected to attend and which can take several

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 38 Hum Ecol (2011) 39:29-42

Fig. 4 Labor allocation of grandfather

days. While she prioritizes

under control. He also applies fertilizer and pesticides if comm
she is also responsible for
his son is not able to do so. He combines his daily trips to look
takes up to 20%
the rice fieldsof
with cuttingher
grass along the ricetotal
bunds for tim
generating'). the cattle (Fig. 4: 'on-farm income generating').
Her engagement with rice cultivation with a total work Apart from his work in the rice fields, Kak Renda is also
share of 11% is mainly of a ceremonial nature (Fig. 5). a munduk head in the subak in which the household owns
With her father in-law she also harvests the rice that is used land. This requires him to meet with other munduk heads
for household consumption. Her rice field activities occasionally, supervise munduk communal work events,
increase occasionally if both men are busy with other help prepare subak ceremonies and, on rare occasions, act
obligations, when she monitors water flow and plant health. as a mediator when there is a conflict between two farmers.
Her rice field activities are reduced to zero when she is
Although he tried to resign from this role, munduk members
busy with communal preparatory work for ceremonieswanted
in him to continue. He therefore has to wait until
the hamlet or village. someone else is willing to take over or his age forces him to
Kak Renda does not work off-farm but is the key person retire. He still attends subak, hamlet, and extended family
in relation to daily routine tasks on the rice terraces, where
ceremonies (Fig. 4: 'off-farm non-income generating'). It is
he does 72% of the work (Fig. 5). He monitors water flow,
of utmost importance to keep in close contact with the
extended family because of shared ancestry. The links
clears the bunds of weeds, monitors the rice crop and does
the constant weeding to keep the fast-growing weeds
between the living and the dead are crucial aspects contrib-

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Hum Ecol (201 1) 39:29^2 39

Fig. 5 Labor share of each household m

uting to the harmonious

see a problemfunc
of
Attending full-time
village and employ
hamlet r
acknowledging off-farm
the employ
importance of
The household's
Thechildren
exampleare
of on
t
in tasks related to of
ities irrigated ric
coordinatio
Renda has to are
help characteristic
her mother w
offerings, Made
sizedis
bytoo young
Netting
activities, Eder
although 1999).
his Our
parents o
the household farming
when he househo
is older
many young similar are
Balinese patterns
not a
wil
the fields different
anymore. house
Being a r
desirable ceremonial
career path, prepar
particula
many farmers almost
and theexclusively
"dirt" inv
symbols of tions
lower are allocated
status, pover
parents hope Off-farm
that Made employ
will be
enables him because
to financial
support his ow
having to tures.
abandon Seasonal agr
irrigated inc
expect Made toconsiderable
engage with cont
both
but with suffice
higher and
off-farm fluctua
income
market prices as
23 Balinese tions.
cannot live Neverthele
by themselv
community is as important
yields cover as the
house
household is required
and to be for
labor fully co
grow
maintain that hamlet members have
although the exte
good times, so that they are strong
relationship workload
between of the
households o
a
meaning are and
compassion engaged in.
solidarity.

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 40 Hum Ecol (2011) 39:29-42

Conclusion of the irrigation system means less work for the individual
(Ostrom 1992); joint water management means group
Rice cultivation continues to be an important income
pressure on free-riders (Ostrom 1990).
generating activity for rural farming households in Bali. The
It shift from communal to outsourced labor for the
peak labor periods in the cultivation cycle has been
has, however, become just one of several other income-
remarkable. But because the kind of work that has been
generating household activities. Agricultural modernization
has provided the technologies to reduce labor inputmovedand from communal to outsourced work was never
organized through the subak , the effect on the subak as an
reorganize rice farming to become more flexible with peak
organization has been minimal. The disappearance of
labor demand accommodated by household or outsourced
hired labor. The many tourists arriving in Bali over thecommunal
last work arrangements is also a clear sign of a shift
from subsistence-oriented agriculture to a more individual-
20 years have created a new market for casual and permanent
off-farm work. In this sense, agrarian change has been
ized and market-oriented system. Nevertheless, this move is
regarded as positive by both older and younger farming
beneficial to the farming households. The many off-farm
household members because they associate the monetizing
employment opportunities for skilled and unskilled labor,
of irrigated agriculture with greater access to modern
casual or permanent, have given household members a varied
consumer goods. The older generation still remembers
set of possibilities in generating sufficient income. Meanwhile
much harder work in the rice fields in the past, periods of
farming households have been able to adjust their agricultural
activities to fit in off-farm work without abandoning starvation
rice in between harvests, and the overall higher
poverty rate within the villages.
cultivation. The developments of the past decades show that
Yet, the future of rice cultivation may be in question
farming households are adaptive in that they can adjust to
changing circumstances and rearrange internal operationssince
to many of the younger generation are unwilling to work
"in the mud" anymore. The farming community r ageing, a
serve new demands and purposes. The persistence of part-time
trend which is not unique to Bali (Skeldon 1999). Better
farming is due not only to the new technologies reducing labor
input on-farm but also to the competitive advantage ofeducation
the and permanent skilled off-farm employment
opportunities are good reasons not to return to the farm.
flexible organizational structure of the farming household,
which allows for a continuation of crop cultivation as a This
side trend away from agriculture can also be seen in how
part of the farming household's income is invested in
business alongside the household's participation in several
off-farm opportunities.24 children's education for a future non-agricultural profes-
sion. Choices however depend on individual household
This ability to be flexible in their working arrangements
circumstances, such as land available for sharecropping as
shows also that the subak has minimal impact on the farming
well as the skills to pursue off-farm non-agricultural work.
household in regard to its rice crop management. The subak
is merely a supportive framework to allow farmers to Given Bali's high dependence on tourism, global trends
also influence these intra-household decisions. In the wake
manage rice production as smoothly as possible, assuring
of the Bali bombings and the global economic crisis, for
continuous access to irrigation water, minimizing free-riding
example, tourist numbers significantly dropped resulting in
through joint responsibilities in management and operation,
fewer permanent and casual off-farm work opportunities.
and guaranteeing the protection of the crop by organizing
ceremonies and setting a cultivation schedule. FarmingThose who had kept their rice fields while working off-farm
considered growing rice again, while other families who
households subscribe to these services by paying a small
subak membership fee and, more importantly, making had opted to sell their fields ended up with serious financial
difficulties (MacRae 2005). The rice field gained impor-
obligatory communal labor commitments. This labor input
requires minimal time and can be organized withintance
the as it offered a measure of social security in an insecure
world.
household by allocating impending work to available
members. Nevertheless, the services the subak provides to
For the older generation in rural households rice farming is
a viable option if enough land is available. Rice farming is a
its members are paramount. Communal subak work obliga-
backdrop and security system that generates a continuous and
tions substantially reduce labor requirements of individual
households and support Bali's particular methods of ricemore or less reliable income and a guaranteed supply of the
cultivation, which are seen as foundation of regular high
main staple food. Off-farm employment is available in form of
casual work. On-farm labor is flexibly accommodated to
yields: synchronization of irrigation and ceremonies means
household labor depending on their off-farm casual work
less pests (Lansing 1991); joint operation and maintenance
commitments.
Clearly farming households adopt different strategies
24 See for example Eder (1993: 665) who ascribes the persistence of
part-time farming to the 'extraordinarily resilient social depending on the capabilities of individuals and pos-
organizational'
nature of the farming household. sessed assets. Most importantly, however, the subak

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 HumEcol (2011) 39:29-42 41

continues to Viewed 4/08/2010 at http://bali.bps.go.id/tabeldetail.php?

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Bray, F. (1994). The Rice Economies: Technology and Development
that rice cultivation
in Asian Societies. Blackwell. Oxford. is no lo
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Breman, J., and Wiradi, And
G. (2002). Good Times and Bad Times in
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We should keep in mind, however, that rice terraces zation? The Journal of Asian Studies 52(3): 647-671.
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Economic Change in the Rural Philippines. University of
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