Abstract
Although it is true that the vast majority of oil palm is grown on plantations, the participation of the indigenous people of inland Sarawak in the oil palm industry is steadily increasing. This chapter discusses the autonomy and sustainability of farming management by small-scale farmers in the Bintulu region, which has witnessed a significant increase in the number of such farmers. The nature of oil palm farming is different from that of other commercial crops that Sarawak’s small-scale farmers have cultivated in the past. This crop involves investing in the land and recovering the returns from such investments—a relatively modern agricultural economic system. This system is believed to place restrictions on time, location and area of the agricultural activities of indigenous communities. In reality, however, people engage in relatively flexible small-scale farming, by following their traditional customs and incorporating aspects of the plantation mode of operation. In addition, the active involvement of urban wage earners in oil palm cultivation is also observed. Such agricultural activities are thus not necessarily confined to the villages. Rather, the cultivation of oil palm has led to a strengthening of social and economic ties within households that are divided between urban centres and rural villages. There is, however, uncertainty concerning the future sustainability of small-scale oil palm farming. A salient issue will be finding a way to enable farmers to shift to another method of earning a livelihood when oil palm cultivation becomes stagnant or unprofitable, while still maintaining secondary fallow forests and rubber fields.
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Notes
- 1.
In addition to these livelihood activities, undertaking wage labour at timber-logging camps and in urban centres became another livelihood option from the 1970s onwards.
- 2.
When slash-and-burn upland rice cultivation is conducted by just one or two households, it is often the case that they are barely able to harvest any rice due to the damage that sparrows cause to the crop. Thinking that damage from birds could be prevented by conducting slash-and-burn farming on land where various households are adjacent, rice farming was initially recommenced in SA village as an experiment. In a labour-saving attempt, the early phase of oil palm cultivation by slash-and-burn farmers frequently uses land immediately after rice has been harvested as it eliminates the need for felling secondary fallow forests . In other words, the recommencement of rice farming in SA village could be considered to be a preparatory task for planting oil palm. Additionally, during the few years in which they did not engage in rice farming, the households that remained at the longhouse earned a living by engaging in irregular wage labour (rubber tapping), working in neighbouring settlements or from remittances sent by relatives working in urban areas.
- 3.
NU village is a longhouse located alongside the Bakun road, approximately 90 km from Bintulu or one and a half hours’ drive away. In 2012, 23 households were cohabiting the longhouse in NU village and they were all engaged in oil palm cultivation. Of these, eight households (35%) were selling fresh fruit bunches while the oil palm belonging to the rest of the residents had not yet borne any fruit.
- 4.
Miri is the second largest city in Sarawak and is located approximately 200 km northeast of Tubau.
- 5.
Sebuah is a market town alongside Kemena River located approximately 90 km from Tubau. It takes about 2 h by car to reach Sebauh from Tubau.
- 6.
MA is located approximately 95 km from Bintulu, a journey that takes a little over 2 h by car via a public highway and an unpaved plantation road. As of 2011, 28 households were living at the longhouse in MA, with all the households being engaged in oil palm cultivation . Of these, 23 households (89%) were selling fresh fruit bunches, with the crops of the rest of households not yet bearing fruit.
- 7.
The workers’ lodgings are located approximately 10 km from the longhouse (a journey that takes a little over 30 min by car via a plantation road).
- 8.
According to Peter Kedit (the former director of Sarawak Museum who is knowledgeable about the labour migration of the Iban) , there has been an increase in the number of Iban working in oil fields in the Middle East and northern Europe in recent years. Earnings made from overseas labour migration have been frequently used for oil palm cultivation .
- 9.
Although rubber, which had been widely cultivated in the inland region of Sarawak, can also be harvested throughout the year, there is no need for repeated fertiliser and agrochemical applications once it has been planted. In addition, even if rubber is left for a long period without being extracted (in the event that its price drops, for instance), the collection of the crop can still be resumed at any point.
- 10.
The villagers often identify and express the size of oil palm farm using the number of seedlings planted rather than the area. Although the area greatly differs depending on the planting interval (7–9 m), planting 2000 seedlings can be estimated to be an area of about 11–18 ha.
- 11.
The details of tasks at oil palm farms in the observed example in the Malay Peninsula have been listed by R.H.V. Corley and P.B. Tinker (2003). According to this data, weed removal constitutes 10% of the volume of labour while fertiliser application constitutes 5%; harvesting constitutes 79% of labour and fresh fruit bunches transport constitutes 6%. In terms of the financial costs incurred during oil palm cultivation , Fumikazu Ubukata and Yucho Sadamichi (Chap. 24) have compared the costs of small-scale farming to those on a plantation.
- 12.
Needless to say, there are various elements where the villagers are forced to rely on plantations. One such aspect is with regard to the sales of fresh fruit bunches. In recent years, however, the number of intermediate buyers has grown rapidly, with more sales methods for fresh fruit bunches and increasing opportunities to sell for small-scale farmers. This is a topic we intend to discuss further in a future publication.
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Soda, R., Kato, Y. (2020). The Autonomy and Sustainability of Small-Scale Oil Palm Farming in Sarawak. In: Ishikawa, N., Soda, R. (eds) Anthropogenic Tropical Forests. Advances in Asian Human-Environmental Research. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7513-2_17
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