In Bali, rice is not just the most important crop, it’s the livelihood of their entire culture. The Balinese culture is so intimately connected with wet rice farming that every ceremony relates to rice. Three times a day, the Balinese make offerings called canang sari, which consists of a small palm-leaf tray filled with flowers, money, candy, cigarettes, rice, and incense.
What goes into these offerings represents the four sacred directions, each of which has a sacred color: red, black, white and yellow. In canang sari, flowers of each color are placed in certain directions to symbolize Hindu gods. It is said that god intended to give the Balinese varieties of rice that represents all these colors, but according to Hindu mythology, there was a slight glitch. “Siwa sent a bird to bring the rice to the Balinese but the bird ate the yellow rice – except for a little bit which it planted under the eaves of its house. From the seeds grew turmeric (kunyit)” (1). Yellow rice does not grow in Bali, but mixing white rice with turmeric can make it so. This is the fourth type of rice, and the rice that you will most commonly find in canang sari offerings.
image of canang sari. source: farm8.staticflickr.com
SUBAK
For a small island, Bali produces a LOT of rice. This is made possible by a system between farming communities called subak which dates back to over 1,000 years ago. The subak is a community organization where farmers whose rice paddies are watered by the same source (such as a river) meet regularly to coordinate rice cultivation, to control the distribution of irrigation water, and to plan the construction and maintenance of channels and dams. Everyone benefits from available water, and everyone gets their fair share.
There are around 1,300 subaks in Bali, each with up to 400 members (2). It’s a very democratic system; each member has equal rights, regardless of status or wealth or the size of their farm. It is an ancient system that works!
image of rice paddies. source: kathmanduandbeyond.com
TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE
Bali’s beautiful, rolling green landscapes of rice terraces have only flourished from the hard labor of its farmers. Every single rice sprout in a terrace has been hand-planted, which means trudging through the mud, step by step, leaning over to plant each one. In a single rice paddy, there are well over 10,000 sprouts. However, as I mentioned before, rice is the livelihood of Balinese culture. Farmers are some of the happiest and hard-working people that I’ve met.
The rice cultivation system benefits multiple systems, such is the idea behind permaculture practices. For example, where rice paddies are flood, fish form a naturally-occurring aquaculture: “Rice–fish farming provides additional food and income by diversifying farm activities and increasing yields of both the rice and fish crops. Evidence shows that although rice yields are similar, the integrated rice–fish system uses 68 percent less pesticide than rice monoculture. Fish feed on rice pests, thus reducing pest pressure. Together with the fact that most broadspectrum insecticides are a direct threat to aquatic organisms and healthy fish culture, knowledgeable farmers are much less motivated to spray pesticides. Therefore, it has been suggested that fish farming in rice and the integrated management of pests in rice production are complementary activities” (3).
On the other side of the permaculture coin, my co-worker Natale at SV (who worked with David Holmgren in Australia) argues that rice cultivation does not technically support permaculture practices. For one, it is a monoculture– the Balinese don’t rotate this crop with other vegetables. He says that he’s cultivated rice in rotation with watermelon and pumpkin, which adds a great deal of variety and nutrients to the consumer. He also made a great argument that most of the rice production is genetically modified white rice, which has been modified for machinability and prolonged shelf life. The act of harvesting rice requires a GREAT DEAL of labor, and it is true that machines get the job done quicker. I can’t say that I’ve seen machine rice cultivation in Bali, but I know that in other areas of SE Asia in countries where rice is their main export, this is a big issue (such as India, where in 2014 collected an $8 billion revenue from rice (4)).
image of Kite Festival in Bali. source: ghmhotels.com
When I first arrived in Bali, I became used to hearing the sound of a helicopter in the sky. I never thought about it until I mentioned it out loud and someone said– “That’s not a helicopter, those are the kites!” In August and September, the kids in all of the banjars build these huge, 8 ft. wide kites, and they practice for a massive kite festival unlike anything you’ve ever seen. And it’s so loud! I soon learned that kites have a historical significance in fending off birds that would feed on the rice paddies. There is a religious significance to kites as well– “Balinese Hindus believe that the god Indra amused himself by flying kites, and subsequently taught cattle herders to do the same…kites have become a symbol both of the village’s pride in craftsmaking and the village’s unity, since almost all residents participate in kite-making” (5).
This is why I love Bali. Everything here is not “just because”– the food, culture, and religion all carry a very important spiritual significance that usually has a story behind it. Bali is truly rich in tradition.
A WORD ON GOLDEN RICE
Because of the practices in rice cultivation that I mentioned above, the alleged “golden rice” (ahem… not to be confused with nasi kuning!) has not really hit the market in Bali. That being said, Bali still has to import a great deal of rice in order to sustain the tourist population. I know that the Golden Rice Project is being tested in areas of Indonesia… but I don’t know if this is the same rice that is being imported to Bali. Either way, it serves as a great threat to the livelihood of farmers, and could easily sweep out ancient traditions of agriculture, such as the subak system.
Golden Rice “is a genetically engineered (GE) rice variety that has been developed by industry to produce pro-vitamin A (beta-carotene). Its proponents have hyped GE ‘Golden’ rice as a high-tech, quick-fix solution to vitamin A deficiency (VAD), which is prevalent in developing countries and can lead to blindness. But behind the hype, GE ‘Golden’ rice is environmentally irresponsible, poses risks to human health, and could compromise food, nutrition and financial security” (6).
Last year, Dr. Vandana Shiva, “formed a coalition to advocate for biodiversity and women’s control of the food system in the midst of the Allow Golden Rice Society’s tour of Southeast Asia”. The coalition “believes that governments and consumers should focus on biodiverse seeds, crops, and foods to address the crisis of malnutrition and health. Shiva explains that vitamin A requirements can be satisfied with traditional diets, through eating foods such as spinach, coriander and mint chutneys, and cholai (amaranth leaves)” (7).
This, along with the prevailing subak system, is the kind of knowledge worth sharing.
Check out a short Greenpeace documentary called All That Glitters is Not Gold: The Truth About GE Golden Rice
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