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Subak Organization
Groups of farmers with a common water supply feeding their
rice fields are members of the same cooperative or subak.
During the dry season, which usually falls between April and
September, the farmers rely on irrigation. The rugged landscape,
with its steep hillsides and deep valleys, poses problems
in water supply which are insurmountable for the individual.
Subak organizations, founded many centuries ago, have been
able to share resources and manpower to accomplish this feat
collectively. Water sources were tapped by the ancestors,
and a complex system of sharing evolved to control the division
of this water supply, repair the vital water channels and
prevent theft of water or conflict amongst the members.
Bali has approximately 1200 subaks, each with an average of
200 members, and an average field area of 50 hectares. Membership
is compulsory for every farmer owning land within each area.
Needless to say, survival would be impossible alone. There
is no place for individualism in this system, which is based
on sharing and mutual support. Periodically a leader, known
as a Kepala Subak, or Pekasih, is elected. He serves his group
unpaid, but is sometimes rewarded with extra water or land
privileges. His assistants are the Pengliman, in charge of
work and maintenance projects, and the Kelian Munduk, a supervisor
of water distribution. "Choose the owner of the lowest
rice fields as Kelian Munduk," they say in a popular
joke. "He'll make sure the water gets to his fields,
and everyone will get their share in between!"
Regular subak meetings are held and attendance is compulsory.
Those who fail to show up at meetings are fined. Group decisions
are thus made on the important issues such as propitious dates
for planting and harvesting, ceremonies and offerings, the
times for fertilizing and use of insecticides, the type of
seed to be used, as well as the control, cleaning and maintenance
of the irrigation dams and canals. Each subak has its own
rice field temple where principal rice ceremonies are held.
The smaller shrines in rice fields and near water supply sources
are usually the individual responsibilities of the farmers
or groups of farmers in the vicinity.
The highly sophisticated subak system provides optimum communication
and organization, an infrastructure with which the Ministry
of Agriculture can work closely to implement effective improvements
on a large scale. An official liaison officer known as the
Sedahan Agung is appointed within each of the eight Kabupaten.
He is directly responsible to the Department of Agriculture
in Denpasar. There are in turn several Sedahan Yeh, the overseers
of irrigation, plus a number of field staff and extension
agents, some of who organize the purchase of rice at guaranteed
floor prices, transportation, milling, storage and export
of surplus rice, assistance in the control of pestilence and
natural disaster.
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