Indonesia and self-sufficient rice production

1.)    The focal question of this case study is, “how has Indonesia’s desire for self-sufficiency in rice compromised its ability to address the issues of sustainable agricultural development?”  During the time span from 1970-1984 Indonesia had increases its irrigated land from 3.7-4.9 million hectares.  With all this new land the government needed people to work it, so they forced out families living in the cities to live in the country.   With huge subsidies for herbicides, pesticides, and rice crop the farmers in turn over sprayed and over irrigated the rice land.  Which in turn had devastating environmental effects due to runoff and water pollution along with economic effects due to inefficient use of pesticides.  Also, the use of extensive sprays created a pesticide resistant bug that damaged 50-60,000 hectares of cultivated rice.  So in short Indonesia’s government led approach to achieve self-sufficiency in rice production backfired horribly, leaving behind extensive environmental and economic damage.  This relates back to previous models because it shows exactly how to not achieve sustainable agriculture.  The green revolution was the first indicator of this, massive amounts of fertilizer coupled with irrigation and sprays may produce a lot of food in a short time, but in the long run it’s not morally correct, it’s not efficient, nor is it environmentally safe. http://personal.colby.edu/personal/t/thtieten/ag-ind.html

2.)    The second case study I chose to research was about the application of waste water for agricultural use.  This takes place in Haroonabad, Pakistan.  So what happens in this case study is the effects of waste water irrigated fields in terms of public health, water, and soil quality.  Then they compared that to regular water taken from a canal.  The main reason these farmers were using the wastewater to irrigate their crops was because it is readily available, and these farmers planted much more high value crops, such as vegetables.  On the other hand farmers who used the canals or ground water for irrigation found it increasingly difficult to use water during the dry summer season due to increase in cost of extraction.  The wastewater had levels of E. coli and worm eggs that exceeded the international standards for irrigation and could pose a threat to human health.  When asked about their health it was reported that the families exposed to the wastewater reported more cases of diarrhea, and the men had 80% higher reports of round worms.   However the farmers who use the wastewater are saving money on fertilizers and hired labor, they also make more money from their crop because of the availability of wastewater.  They have access to this water all year long, and oftentimes over water their fields, a luxury the canal water farmers cannot afford. Even with the human health risks clearly present the farmers are using more and more wastewater to irrigate their field, which means they need a health program to limit the transmittance of worms.  This shows that communities in underdeveloped countries do not have the resources needed to grow food in a secure manner, they are relying on wastewater simply because it’s more available.  The next problem is that technological advancements won’t reach these areas any time soon, simply because their governments aren’t stable enough to allow this to happen.  If countries could reach these small communities and bring technological advancements then we can get more people out of poverty, and take a step in the right direction toward development. 

https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=qWXUBAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR5&dq=international+case+study+on+agriculture&ots=6Plb1rp8wO&sig=O0BRdqd6Zdch3-QJ5Mq5BnVhLeI#v=onepage&q=international%20case%20study%20on%20agriculture&f=false

3.)    Connecting these two cases to where I live seems like a difficult task.  At home, in Wellsboro P.A. there isn’t a need for wastewater because we have springs and lakes, and rivers at easy access for water should we need to irrigate.  Secondly we receive a ridiculous amount of rainfall every summer, so much so that we actually lost 15 acres of snap beans due to rot.  However I do see some similarities, when times of no rainfall we have filled up tanks of water to irrigate corn, soybeans, and wheat.  Though the thought of having to use wastewater is a scary thought, not only because it’s unsanitary it can also cause serious health effects to our consumers.  It really makes me appreciate how easy we have it here in terms of water quality, and water safety.  However the thought of water spiked already with natural fertilizers isn’t a bad thought, however you need a site that can safely handle the wastewater and clean it of all bacteria, and pathogens.  That would save my family alone thousands on fertilizer every growing season.  In a sense this can already be happening, because pig farmers spread liquid nitrogen on their fields, while we also spread manure onto our fields during the growing season.