The country in East Asia, majority produce and using rice for the daily food and it was already begun since old time, those country are Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and etc.
Especially in Indonesia, people consume a lot of rice everyday until the rice commodity cannot balance with rice total that consumed by Indonesian people. In this case, the government import rice from other country such as Thailand and China.
Many people say that if they may not eat rice in lunch, that was not lunch. Even they already eat noodle, they still needs rice for lunch. In Indonesia, the inhabitant is increase every year. So, the equipment for rice is also increase. The government already try to make increase the production of rice so that it can covered rice that import from other country.
The History
Indonesia have a long history about rice. No one knows why Indonesian people likes to plant or eat rice so much. It happens since the ancestor time. The things that should be known is about the land of Indonesia is very fertile, every plants can grow in Indonesia, especially rice. Almost in all area in Indonesia can plant rice. White rice is kind of rice that consume everyday. There is also red rice. That kind of rice is very healthy and appropriate for diet.
Since 1968 until 1992, the production of rice by farmer are developed. In the 1968, the production of rice around 17.156 thousands ton and then in the 1992, increase almost three times on 47.293 thousands ton. In that period, firstly Indonesia is already import rice from another country but because of the increase of the rice production, Indonesia become the benefit country with plantation rice. In that time, the government is also give the farmer facility to lend the money from bank to financing the rice, because to produce rice needs much money. The big history of rice cultivation in the old time, make government decrease the poverty in Indonesia.
In the other years, since 1992 until now, Indonesia have many inhabitant. Indonesia is number 4 for country that have many inhabitant after China, USA, and India. The needs of rice is also increase. Many problem appears, the government cannot cover rice for all inhabitant. Today, Indonesia import from rice from China and Thailand to covers the needs of rice.
The Plantation
Actually to plant rice is not difficult if we know the step. There are many steps to get the good quality of rice. The steps little bit complicated than the plantation of other plant like corn, banana, chili and etc. However, the result of rice plantation is bigger than other plants. In this case, the farmer or people that want to plant rice pay attention on the weather condition, because to plant rice, the farmer may not difficult to find water (hot weather) and the rice may have water overly (rainy weather).
Farmer is also should know about the plant disease like mice, insect, and wind. Mice and insects is the biggest enemy for farmer because that animal can damage the rice plantation, and make the farmer loss the rce financial. For wind, the wind can make rice collapse and broken. The success of farmer to plant the rice is depend on the weather condition. For the animal disease is can solve with fertilizer but for the weather condition, farmer still cannot find the solution.
There are some steps for plants the rice, those are :
- The farmer buy rice seeds from the gardening shop
- The farmer choose and prepare the location (field/land) for planting.
- The farmer soak the seeds in the water until 36 hours.
- The farmer plant rice seeds in the field
- The farmer should know the condition of water in the field
- The farmer will transplant the rice when the high is 5-7 inches
- The farmer wait the rice 3 or 4 month and let the water dry out.
- The farmer can cut the rice.
- The farmer use a machine for change the rice plant become hulled rice.
The Process
The process of rice until inhabitant can consume it is easier than the way farmer plants rice. From the field, the farmer using a tool or machine to crop the rice from the field. the unhulled paddy separated from the stalks, and then put to the sack. The farmer will rent a car to bring many sacks to the special place for rice manufacture, and then they will get money from sell many sacks of rice. Another farmer will bring the sacks to their home and consume the rice until the next rice season come. They cannot make sure how much money that they get from the rice plantation. Every season, the result is different. It depends on the insect, and the land.
Sometimes they can get more than fifty million, but sometimes, they also can get zero from the rice plant. There are some reason, it is because the mice eat all of rice so that the farmer failed to sell the rice, also the weather is rainy. And then the rice plants are under water.
People that bring the sacks of paddy to their home can limit their house financial, because they only need to buy for side dishes. They already have many rice, no needs to buy again. They can bring a sack of paddy to rice hulling machine. A sack of paddy become a half sack of rice after getting process in that machine. There is also ‘dedak’, that is the mixture of bran. That was a result from the rice hulling machine. Sometimes, the farmer uses dedak for feed animal like duck, goat and cow.
There are two choices for cook the rice. Firstly, people uses rice cooker. That was easy because the people only need to wash the rice, and then put on the rice cooker, add the water, close the rice cooker, and turn on the cook button. Waiting until the rice cooked. The other way to cook the rice is using dandang (large metal vessel for steaming rice.
In the 2017, many bad news about rice in Indonesia. There is an issue that the reason of expensive rice make the seller mix rice with the mirror. However, the police is already investigate the issue, and the result is lie. There is no rice mix with mirror. Actually there is a method to get good quality rice. If you confuse to buy in the market, you can buy in the farmer directly.
There will be some benefit if you buy to the farmer rice directly. Firstly, you can get the price cheaper than the rice price in the market. The farmer that you know so well will give you information about where is good quality rice and where is bad quality rice. In the market, sometimes the seller can mix the rice with whitener, so the old or the cheap rice become expensive rice.
The Development
In Indonesia, the development of Rice Cultivation is already happens. The government already have role for agriculture area. The purpose is for increase the result of farmer after plantation. If the result is increase, the government no needs to import the rice from others country. Sometimes, the price of import rice is cheaper than local rice. However, Indonesian people should pay attention about the quality. The step for import rice from other country also makes the farmer can loss the high price. That’s why farmer often having action to go together in the place of government and then they say that they want to high price for their rice plant.
In the past time, farmer being independent. They plants rice with their way or method following their ancestor, but sometimes they cannot buy expensive fertilizer. So, they cannot maximum in the end of harvest for nice profit. Todays, government make many program for farmer like make many group farmer. One area or city in Indonesia can have many farmer group.
The farmer group will get a briefing from the government about the new method for plant rice, new fertilizer, having water facility when hot weather, and many more. They also can get free fertilizer as the subsidy from the government. The government with the agriculture expert always create new kinds of seed, so that it can make the result of rice increase.
In the globalization era, there is easy things to promote or sell the rice of the farmer. People can sell directly in the door to door, in the market until using online shop to sell the rice. That’s why in this era is so easy to find rice. You can choose the rice you want in your handphone, and you can get the rice without walking around. The rice divided into some types, such as usual quality, middle quality and high quality.
On the other hand, here the information about farmer from Indonesia tell their stories about rice plantation in Indonesia.
The high quality rice is more expensive than other kind of rice. You can go to the market and you will find many kind of rice. Don’t choose or buy the rice when you see there is one louse in the rice. That is represent that the rice is so old. That kind of rice cheaper than other.
