ABSTRACT
This chapter is a preliminary analysis of the impact of the krismon on food crop production in Indonesia. It focusses on irrigated rice farming in Java during the period from July 1997 to the end of 1998. Javanese rice production makes up 55% of national output of this crop, making it of prime importance in the Indonesian agricultural economy (FAO, 1998a). Using a field survey, newspaper articles, official reports and other published materials, we address the following questions:
What can be learned from the experiences of rice farmers about the effects of the krismon on agriculture?
Did rice farming benefit from the crisis and can it help pull the national economy out of recession?
What can policy makers and researchers do to enable rice production to fulfil this role?
Our analysis is in four parts. The first section presents the study areas covered and the data collection methods used in the field survey, before examining the pre-crisis situation in these areas against the background of trends in the overall macro-economic, political and social environment. We pay special attention to the social heterogeneity of the rice sector, presenting a typology of farms based on land tenure, size of holding and income. The second section looks at the varying impacts of the crisis on rice farmers. Again, we put our analysis in perspective by viewing it against the background of overall macro-economic trends, especially those symptomatic of Indonesia’s crisis. In the third section, we investigate the possible effects of the crisis on rice farmers in the future, presenting alternative scenarios based on different trends in prices. The last section presents our conclusions.