Driven Young People Determine the Future of Papua’s Food Self-Sufficiency and Security
NEWS — September 2020
Experts agree that fulfilment of food is the most basic human need. Thus, Mace Papua reports (11/9/20) resilience and independence of society to produce their own food require sustainable agriculture. Unfortunately, in this modern era, not many young people are interested in agricultural activities.
In fact, when the COVID-19 pandemic impedes distribution between regions as it is today, food independence and security are even more needed so that people do not depend on food supplies from other regions or government assistance.
As Mace Papua reports (11/9/20), fortunately, there are still young people who care about agriculture in West Papua Province, Papua or you might call it the West Papua region. In contrast to their peers who began to migrate and crave for modern urban life, Naomi Kemesrar (19 years) and Yoab Sagisolo (21 years), two young people from Mlaswat Village, Saifi District, South Sorong Regency, West Papua persistently manage their village gardens by practicing agricultural activities.
Both of them have been actively farming since joining the Social Transformation School (STS) in November 2019 until now. STS itself is part of a series of School of Eco Involvement (SEI) activities held by the EcoNusa Foundation in collaboration with the Indonesian Society for Social Transformation (INSIST).
The goal of this endeavor is to build village resilience in the fields of food, energy, and environmental management. During the activity, the participant representatives from the selected villages have been taught how to grow crops organically by utilizing existing resources in their respective villages.
Apart from Mlaswat, this farming project has been attended by participants from 9 other villages in West Papua, namely Suswa — Kombif, Malalilis, Klatomok, Klasowoh, Malawer, Klayili, Kwakeik and Kamandu Tetar. After attending STS, the participants continued their Village School (Sekolah Kampung) or Field School (Sekolah Lapang). For 3 months, they put into practice the knowledge obtained from STS in their respective villages.
“Before studying agriculture, every day after school, these young men were just sitting around. Most helped parents venture the forest looking for fruit or catch fish. Now (they are) busy in the garden almost every day. I also learned that agriculture is important.
“We come to know how to plant properly. So that the plant does not die, it must be given fertilizer, so that it is fertile. We can pick our own vegetables without having to go to the market,” said Naomi when contacted by the EcoNusa team as reported by Mace Papua.
Naomi experienced many difficulties when she first started learning to grow crops, especially when she had to make raised beds and organic fertilizers. But finally, Naomi managed to grow the vegetables and has harvested them several times. Kale, long beans, spinach, mustard greens, and rica or chilies all thrive in his hands.
This teenager who recently graduated from high school has also passed on his knowledge to the villagers. She distributed the seeds of the plants she had grown. Naomi teaches how to plant and make organic fertilizers by practicing directly in the village garden.
“In this village, many young people have undergraduate degrees. Many are agricultural scholars. But when they returned to the village, they did not bring any knowledge that could be passed on to build this village. I don’t want to be like them. I want to share my agricultural knowledge with the villagers so that everyone can grow all kinds of vegetables and fruit,” said Naomi.
Meanwhile, Joab, who lives not far from Naomi’s house, doesn’t just plant the village garden with vegetables. He also cultivates fruit and medicinal plants, such as papaya trees, itchy leaves (daun gatal) and betel (daun sirih).
Apart from meeting his daily food needs, Yoab started to think about marketing his garden produce. Recently, he was growing betel and trying to sell it. Betel is quite attractive to residents because the culture of chewing betel is still thick in the village. The result is good enough to increase income.
Before joining STS, Yoab was actually preparing to travel to the city following in the footsteps of his friends. However, he gave up his mind and decided to stay in the village. After attending the field school and managing a village garden, he became even more determined with his decision to remain in his homeland. He wants to focus on developing the potential of his village by farming.
“I want to start getting used to preparing firm foundation for myself and future generations. Because most of us don’t realize that our land is very fertile. However, we were not used to encouraging ourselves to develop our own land,” said Yoab as reported by Mace Papua.
Both Yoab and Naomi have big dreams. One day their efforts to plant a village garden with a variety of food crops can be a source of income for residents in Mlaswat village. Both of them hoped that the garden products could not only be consumed by themselves but also sold to other villages or areas in the future.
Carmelita Mamonto, SEI Program Coordinator and Program Liaison Officer of EcoNusa Foundation, Maluku Region, emphasizes that the future of Papua, especially its agriculture and food security is in the hands of Papuan youth. Their willingness and knowledge will determine whether or not Papua’s agriculture is in good hands.
“People who are independent to meet their own food needs will certainly not be easily tempted by offers from other parties who want to control the natural resources around the village. However, if young people are no longer interested in farming and upholding their land, one day we would truly lose land, water sources, sources of knowledge and sources of livelihood.
Through a series of School of Eco Involvement Programs, one of which is STS, the EcoNusa Foundation hopes that its participants will become strong and independent cadres, able to make decisions about their sources of life, and become a driving force for their village,” said Carmelita. (*)
