PAK LAN: TRUELY ORGANIC!

Since the campus of PERDIKAN-INSIST was constructed in Pakem and utilized two years ago (2007), it has been designed to optimally use the land for organic farming. This is for two purposes: (1) as a demonstration plot for the neighboring farmers; and (2) as the sources of food and alternative energy, as least for our own consumption. Therefore, the campus and the surrounding land have simultaneously served as ‘organizing tool’ for the local farmers.

However it’s easy to say than done. The activists and managers of PERDIKAN campus are too busy with many other activities, that the idea has not been implemented yet for the last two years. Fortunately we have Pak Lan (Kasilan). Visitors of PERDIKAN campus are certainly familiar with this middle-aged man. It is this humble man from Kidul Mountain who prepared tea, coffee, or fried cassava, that he produced himself, for the guests. Since PERDIKAN campus operated, he is in charge to cultivate the farming land that belongs to two members of INSIST, YPRI and YSIK. The total land available is indeed not that large, only about 3.000 m2, because the other 1.000 m2 have been allocated for offices, meeting space, pavilion, kitchen and ware house. Nonetheless it is on this small piece of land where Pak Lan practiced 100% organic farming techniques.

Where did he learn? The hard-working farmer responded: “From my father and grandfather!” He is always enthusiastic in telling the traditional natural farming techniques and knowledge practiced by his father and grandparent, even though they cultivated on the notorious dry land in the inland of Mountain Kidul. “If they could farm in the barren land like Mountain Kidul, why couldn’t I farm in such fertile soil like Pakem?”, he wondered. He was very happy when YPRI and INSIST Secretary decided to acquire the land and moved to Pakem. He didn’t waste the opportunities entrusted to him to cultivate the fertile land around the campus and new office of PERDIKAN-INSIST. Since moving to Pakem, he did not let any single piece of the land remained uncultivated. On YPRI’s land (only about 600 m2) behind the pavilion, he planted organic local rice of 'cempo putih', where the seed he brought directly from his village in Kidul Mountain. He didn’t use any chemical inputs at all, including fertilizer and pesticides, and completely applying manure compost combined with traditional water management and planting technique. Many farmers around PERDIKAN doubted and even disbelieved if Pak Lan would ever succeeded.

One day, when his paddy was already grown high, many tips of paddy leaves were eaten by certain kind of pest. He was a bit worry, because initially he was confidence that he could be able to show his accomplishment to other neighboring farmers. By chance Tanto visited PERDIKAN. Tanto then examined the paddy and said: “It’s ok, Pak Lan. Take it easy. It’s not seriously harmful.” Apparently, the paddy plants were ripened and ready for harvest with maximum results, about 100 kg un-milled rice, much better than neighboring farmers which averagely harvest only about 50-60 kg un-milled rice from similar width of land. It has been two planting seasons where Pak Lan proved to the surrounding farmers that organic farming is way much better. It was the same case in dry season, when Pak Lan planted peanuts. Other farmers have to work hard every day to clear up the wild grasses grown around their peanuts, because of using too much chemical fertilizer. Pak Lan didn’t have to toil that hard, because the wild grasses never grown fertilely in his land, that only applying manure compost and without any chemical pesticides.

Not only rice that he planted. In a small piece of land (about 50 m2 only), in the southeast of the pavilion, behind the fish pond, he also planted various kinds of vegetables; mustard, cress, eggplant, kangkung (water spinach), spinach, chili, tomato, basil, lemon-grass, star fruit, tombrang, curcuma, corn, and even rosella and ‘Japanese string-beans’. All of them were harvested in turn along the year. Behind the land of YSIK, close to the goat and chicken cages, which are the sources of his organic fertilizer, he planted several types of bananas, cassava, and tubers (including the material for kolak (Indonesian dessert made with palm sugar and coconut milk, with pandanus leaf) often served for PERDIKAN members and  visitors, especially for break fasting during Ramadhan). Moreover all of the bamboo fences and the building poles in the campus are full of creeping plants: cucumber, gambas, string bean, and markisa (passion fruit). He even succeeded in propagating one type of wild flowers originally from Europe where its leaves and flowers can be consumed as salad or slaw lalapan. All of them 100% organic! The leaves of turi trees along the border of the campus land are also used as humus for the soil.

All these success stories have made the neighboring farmers wonder: how such tiny piece of land can be so productive without additional costs for buying highly expensive chemical inputs? The farmers then agreed to learn from Pak Lan. He modestly suggested them to learn directly from the experts which often visited and gathered in PERDIKAN campus. The farmers consented and the meetings on 7 and 9 November 2009 took place. “I myself gained a lot of knowledge and information from them”, said Pak Lan, “When they were chatting or facilitating a training, I always spend time to listen to them, although I only stood outside them room while preparing tea of coffee for them. Afterward, without their consent, I directly practiced the new information. Then they will ask me where and how I knew the farming techniques only after the plant has grown or harvested”. So don’t be amazed that this elementary school graduated man can discuss fluently (in his own terms of course) about 'farmers independence”, 'food sovereignty’, ‘free market’, 'capitalism’, and even 'neo-lib'!

Pak Lan, the meticulous farmer, doesn’t mean to disgrace us at all. He merely expressed his thoughts and feelings frankly, and outspokenly.  However the activists which often discussed big issues on food and alternative energy in this PERDIKAN campus, with bunches of ‘scientific’ data and arguments, should also learn one thing that they often can’t do: practice it by yourselves! Concrete examples are the best way to teach and involve other people, especially the rural farmers, as Pak Lan has proved it to the farmers of Dukuh Sempu. He is probably one of the best community organizers that ‘unintentionally’ borne by PERDIKAN-INSIST: 100% organic!