Growing Market-Oriented Crops: Bali

By Barrie | August 4th, 2007 | No Comments

Farmers today must grow and develop market focused and technology-based agriculture products to boost their businesses, an official said. But Djoko Said Damardjati, director general for processing and marketing of agriculture products at the Ministry of Agriculture, said Indonesian farmers generally worked their farms with little thought for sales and marketing.

Djoko addressed a seminar including farmers and agricultural experts from 13 countries, including India, Malaysia and Japan as the article in the Jakarta Post explains.

He said Indonesian farmers must keep up with technological developments in order to compete in the global market.

Japan, he said, focused heavily on the use of high-tech equipment to improve the quality of their products and to market them internationally.

Thailand is another success story in the agriculture sector as it combines agriculture and tourism as one package, Djoko said.
Some areas in Indonesia including Bali have the potential for agro-tourism activities.

In the early l970s, Bali’s agriculture sector generated 56.64 percent of the province’s regional domestic income, followed by tourism (40.60 percent) and home industry (2.76 percent).

During this period, Bali was the country’s top rice exporter,
shipping its products to some neighbor countries like Singapore, the Philippines, China and Europe.

Bali has been famous for other commodities like coffee, cloves, vanilla, cacao, and many others. Not to mention a large variety of tropical fruits and vegetables.

However, a lack of market access has forced many farmers to sell their products domestically at a reduced premium.

Over the last 30 years, the province’s agriculture sector has experienced quite a major setback with the rapid growth of the tourism industry and decreasing agricultural sites.

According to data from the Bali trade office, the agriculture sector contributed only 21.37 percent, while income from the tourism sector surged to 63.26 percent.

Home industries also grew significantly, generating 15.37 percent of the regional income.

Ida Bagus Adnyana Manuaba, chairman of the Bali Human Ecology Study (HES), said the development of tourist-related facilities has transformed agricultural sites in many parts of Bali, especially popular tourist areas like Ubud, Kuta, Denpasar and Tabanan.

Bali loses an estimated 1,500 hectares of rice fields per year. The agricultural office said fields were being transformed into residential areas, business centers, hotels, resorts and villas.

The development of such facilities was needed to support the island’s tourism industry, however, it had caused immense economic, social, cultural and environmental problems.

Despite Bali’s contribution to Indonesia’s total income from tourism, (US$2.5 to $3 billion, which is 50 percent of the country’s total tourism income) the sector has proved vulnerable to many outside influences.

On the other hand, the agriculture sector has been tightly embedded to the lives of Balinese people.

Sudibya said plantations and agriculture should be Bali’s focus, next to the tourism industry.

“Bali must combine agriculture and tourism to generate more revenues for the local people,” he said.

“Agro tourism must be developed as both a profit center and a tourism destination,” he said, adding that such activities required qualified and skilled human resources.

“Ideally, persons involved in agro tourism must master both agricultural and tourism know-how,” he said.

With the concept of agro tourism, farmers develop and market their harvests.

In Bangli regency, Arabica coffee is a farmer’s prime commodity, while in Badung and Tabanan a farmer’s prime focus should be on rice and vegetable production.