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Saturday, February 28 2015, 14:41 PM

Edition: Wednesday, July 02 2014

Enter  Query

Nusa Penida farmers lack support to modernizeBY ANTON MUHAJIR ON 2014-07-02

Sunbathing: Harvested seaweed is sun dried on the beach. (BD/Anton Muhajir)

Thanks to the abundant sunshine, Nusa Penida islet in Klungkung regency has become Bali’s major producerof seaweed, a hot commodity that enhances the lives of the local residents.

A number of the tiny island’s villages are renowned as top producers, such as Suana, Batununggal, KutampiKaler, Ped and Toyapakeh. On the neighboring islet of Nusa Lembongan, the village of Jungut also producesseaweed.

Located in the open sea overlooking Lombok, Nusa Penida and its neighboring islets are considered theperfect location to cultivate seaweed, which has become an important ingredient in processed foods, drinksand cosmetics. The seaweed harvests are usually sent to Surabaya in East Java to be shipped to countriesthat include Japan, China, Taiwan and Korea.

According to data from the Coral Triangle Center (CTC), over the last few years, the majority of localresidents have become seaweed farmers working on average an area of 1,000 to 1,500 square meters perperson. This produces around 40 to 50 tons of cottonii and spinosum seaweeds every harvest (25 to 35days). Nusa Penida produces around 65 percent of Bali’s seaweed.

Based on data from the provincial Industry and Trade Agency, Bali’s total seaweed production reached145,597 tons in 2013, a slight increase of 1 percent from the previous year’s 144,000 tons. Bali is one of thenine provinces in the country that produces seaweed.

Despite its huge potential, most Nusa Penida seaweed farmers are facing classic problems — post-harvesthandling, and seaweed distribution and marketing.

Made Sami, a small-scale farmer working a 150-sqm site, said that all the farmers on the island still driedtheir harvest in the traditional way — on plastic mats on the ground in the sunshine.

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Selection: Local women inspect the harvested seaweed, searching for the best quality pieces to be used as seedlings.(BD/Anton Muhajir)

“This traditional drying technique leads to other materials, such as sand and stones, getting caught up in theseaweed,” said Sami.

Other problems also arise. Farmers have neither marketing and distribution capability nor market access,which makes them vulnerable to middlemen who buy their harvests at very low prices.

Nyoman Candra, another farmer from Banjar Pengaut, shared his bad experiences. “Farmers rely heavily onthe services of middlemen. We cannot sell our harvests directly to buyers and exporters. Many said weshould unite to sell our harvests jointly,” Candra said.

In the past, there was a farmers’ union, but it disbanded relatively quickly.

“Now, the middlemen have full control of the prices. We cannot try and bargain as they will just leave us. It isa ‘take-it-or-not’ trade for us,” added Chandra.

The middlemen pay Rp 5,000 (42 US cents) per kilogram for low-quality dried spinosum seaweed, locallyknown as bulung. The price for the higher quality cottonii seaweed, or bulung gondrong in the local language,is Rp 15,000 per kg.

“Bulung gondrong seaweed is more expensive, but buyers are rare,” Chandra said.

Wayan Sukadana, chairman of the Nusa Penida Foundation, lamented that the condition of local seaweedfarmers was quite pitiful. “The biggest challenge for the farmers is post-harvest handling and marketing,”Sukadana said.

He identified three main solutions to the problem. Firstly, the local administration should provide technical andfinancial support for the farmers to manage their harvests.

“Training on post-harvest handling is crucial to allow them to change from the traditional system to a modernone, which in turn would improve the quality of their harvests,” noted Sukadana.

A lack of funding had prevented these farmers from constructing driers, called para-para, which could dry theseaweed more effectively.

It was also important for the local administration to establish a seaweed processing plant on Nusa Penida.“This way, farmers would no longer have to contact middlemen to market their harvests in Surabaya,”Sukadana said.

“One more critical point was the government’s commitment to preserve seaweed farms in Nusa Penida andnot to move or close them to make way for tourist development projects,” he warned.

Tourism, he said, was also a challenge for seaweed farmers.

“This has already occurred on Nusa Lembongan, where hotels, villas and tourist facilities are eating upalmost all the seaweed cultivation sites. I hope this will not happen in Nusa Penida.”

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