Adapted from Beyondthemine.com
Prior to the development of PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara's (PTNNT) Batu Hijau mine in Indonesia, the villagers living in the area relied on subsistence farming to support their families. While the mine brought thousands of new business and job opportunities to the region, we can only directly and indirectly support a finite number of jobs.
To maximize the business opportunities, some residents needed support to establish or to further develop alternative livelihoods to ensure their income stream would continue after mining ceased. In one such instance, a program between the mine and local agencies was established to demonstrate to the local subsistence farmers new agricultural techniques that would improve their farms' productivity.
Our Batu Hijau mine, partnering with Serikat Petani Nelayan Sumbawa Barat, a local foundation that carries out various agriculture and coastal community development programs, provided agricultural-management training to farmers in 15 local villages. We designed our training program to improve rice crop yields through a process known as System of Rice Intensification (SRI).
The SRI technique involves transplanting rice seedlings earlier than the traditional timeframe. In addition, we plant rice seedlings individually rather than in clumps to allow better aeration, easier access for weeding and more room for root development. These activities increase tillering, that is, the generation of shoots from the base of the plant. SRI plants typically have 50 to 80 tillers compared with five to 20 tillers on conventional rice plants.
However, one of the most important aspects of the SRI is that it challenges the accepted view that rice, as an aquatic plant, grows best in standing water. Farmers trained in the SRI technique use a sequence of paddy flooding with the subsequent draining of the water, allowing a period for rice to grow in the relatively dry paddies. Using the SRI techniques, farmers have been producing up to three times more rice per hectare than they had using their traditional methods.
To further aid the efficiency of the paddies, farmers were encouraged to use compost rather than man-made fertilizers, which reduces production costs and environmental impacts.
Rice, a staple food throughout Indonesia, historically was the only crop grown in the areas around the Batu Hijau mine. However, we planted several demonstration crops to illustrate the viability of growing crops beyond just rice. In fields near the SRI rice paddies, the Batu Hijau team successfully completed a melon-cultivation demonstration project designed to assist area farmers with diversifying their crops to increase their long-term economic potential. Batu Hijau initially planted approximately 1,000 melon plants, which yielded 2.5 tons of melons. Based on the successful crop, we planted another 4,000 melon plants, which yielded 10 additional tons.
This community development demonstration project was a great success and clearly has shown that a melon competitive with the current market can be cultivated in areas that historically produced only rice and non-staple crops.
"This pilot study was a great success and demonstrates that melons can be cultivated in dry-type farming land with some dedication and hard work," said Malik Salim, senior advisor of external relations. "We want to introduce and encourage farmers to cultivate other types of plants that have potentially high sale prices and solid markets. The quality of this melon is competitive, and we will continue to facilitate and support similar projects to help farmers increase their livelihood."
