Saniangbaka is located within the Sepuluh Koto Singkarak Sub-district of Solok District, West Sumatra. It is situated near the Singkarak Lake, about 25 minutes' drive from Solok, the district capital city. The landscape of this village is flat in the northern and eastern parts, where the ricefields and residential areas are located, and hilly in the southern part, where farmers are planting cash crops such as rubber, coffee, cardamon, clove, and teak wood. This is different from Dilam village, whose residential area is clustered in one area and is located separately with ricefields or gardens. Thus the population density in Saniangbaka is quite high compared to other surrounding villages (Nagaris) and the distance between wards (jorongs) is quite close.
The flat area of Saniangbaka and the availability of a river across the village permit the development of good irrigation channels. Thus, the ricefields (sawah) in this village receive irrigation water throughout the year. This allows the farmers to plant rice any time of the year and this means farmers are not dependent on rainy seasons to start planting rice. It is common in Saniangbaka that farmers plant rice at different times. However, farmers who plant rice in the hilly areas have problems of water scarcity, and therefore depend on rainfall to water their fields.
Rice is the main crop planted throughout the year. Thus it can be seen that the flat area of Saniangbaka is dominated by ricefields. Farmers have been planting shallots, as a favourite commodity in this village, for many years. However, since the outbreak of shallot diseases in the 1 99912000 planting season that caused the farmers' big loss in income, they have hesitated to continue planting this crop. Several farmers still attempt to plant shallots, but the production is reduced sharply, and is no longer profitable. Other secondary crops which are planted include chilli, banana, and vegetables such as beans, eggplants, potatoes, tomatoes and so on.
Rice production in Saniangbaka has decreased since the outbreak of pest diseases such as 'wereng' (nilaparvata lugens) and mice in the 1 999/2000 planting season. Since then,
1 77 rice production has never fully recovered, and the level of production remains flat (BPP Sepuluh-Koto-Singkarak, 2003 : 2). In fact, this Nagari is famous as a Lumbung Beras
or a rice granary in Solok district, as an effect of its good irrigation facilities and its fertile soil. The sharp reduction of rice production is a reason why many fanners in Saniangbaka prefer to migrate or do merantau2 to achieve a better standard of living. The problems encountered by fanners who planted annual crops are the low price of the products and the high price for harvesting and weeding. Many fanners complain regarding the imbalance between low returns achieved from selling the products and high costs for harvesting and weeding, as one fanner stated:
1 am now having problems in cultivating annual crops such as clove, coffee, and cinnamon, which 1 planted up on the hill. Most of them are not so productive, since 1 do not really take care of them. The price of the products is too low, while the costs for weeding and harvesting are high. Often, 1 do not receive any profit from this activity, and 1 even suffered losses, because the returns that 1 achieve from selling the products are used up for paying the costs of weeding and harvesting. Thus, 1 prefer to cut-off the plants before they mature, and replace them with other crops, such as teakwood, which is popular today. 1 would like, therefore, to request the local government to help us in marketing our products, in order to be profitable for us (In depth Interview, 6 February 2004).
Based on my interviews with other fanners, the above situation is used by the traders to enjoy profit, since they can play around and set the price that is profitable for them. They usually come directly to the field, select the crops that they want to buy, and help the fanners to deliver the products to the town.
At the time of my fieldwork, the fanners also suffered from problems of plant diseases which hit chillies during the rainy season. Chilli is a popular crop in West Sumatra 2In Minangkabau culture, merantau involves people leaving their land, but the system is quite different from that of general transmigration. With the intention of continuing their studies, practicing a trade or seeking jobs, they usually go back to their homeland after they have succeeded. The Minangkabau people are by nature entrepreneurs and travelling or merantau is considered a mark of success (Salim, 1 993).
1 78 because Minangkabau people love to consume spicy food. Its price is very competitve and usually increases b efore and during religious festival days, such as Idul FUri and
Idul Adha. The problem of chilli disease has caused big losses for farmers, since usually they made a good preparation for planting chilli by using good seeds and good fertilisers at a high cost, in order to gain good harvests. Poor farmers, since they have limited resources, can not expect to have high profits, and if the disease strikes their crops, they would suffer. When I visited a group of women farmers in their chilli garden, one of them stated that :
The harvest of our chilli crop is not so plentiful now, because during the rainy season, the disease is very likely to attack the crops. Within four months we have only 10 kilograms of chilli, instead of the usual harvest of up to 40 kilograms. Other than because of the disease, the preparation for planting was not so complete, since we didn 't use the polybag in planting. The price of polybag is very high. Also, the fertilizer is inadequate, because we cannot afford to buy high quality fertilizers. Instead, we used green manure or cow 's dung as a complement (Focus group discussion, 9 February, 2004).
The village infrastructure is better than Dilam. There is a good asphalt road leading to both the residential area and ricefield, except the foot-path up the hill, which is only made of clay. The main road has several shops, which sells items from shoes and cosmetics to rice and vegetables. There is also a rural health centre, a rural bank, a high school, a religious school (madrasah), many mosques, rice-milling units, and farm supplies kiosks. Electricity has been available for many years, and reaches every house in the village. Telephone connection is also available, but it has not yet covered all residences. Uniquely, in each intersection or at the border of the village or Nagari, there is a public TV and benches, where men spend their spare time after working in the fields. This is very common in Saniangbaka, and people use it as a place for informal meetings, and as a place for a security guard.
The Nagari Saniangbaka consists of four jorongs (wards): Saniangbaka Timur, Saniangbaka Barat, Saniangbaka Selatan, and Air Angek. Each jorong covers residential areas, ricefields, gardens, plantation, fishponds, and land used for other
1 79 activities. Each jorong is fonned by several sukus (clans), and each suku consists of several households. Frequently, ajorong is dominated by one clan, and the Jorong will carry the name of the dominant clan. For example, jorong Saniangbaka Timur is dominated by suku Koto, so it is called as Jorong Koto. The division of these jorongs follows the government's regulations in the era of decentralisation, where the Desa government system (in the centralised system) has been transferred into the Nagari government system (in the decentralised system).
The total population of Saniangbaka in 2003-2004 was 6,988 people, consisting of 2,705 males and 3,283 females. The number of households was 1 , 1 4 1 , of which 1 , 1 05 or 96.8% of total households were had members who were fanners. Among these, 408 or 36.9% were fann laborers (Solok-District, 200 1 ).
Fann labourers in Saniangbaka are very common. They usually come from other
Nagaris around Saniangbaka or from other districts in West Sumatra. They stay and cultivate land in Saniangbaka which has been left by the owners, planting food and cash crops. The harvests are shared with the land owners based on arrangements that they established. Most farmers plant cash crops such as coffee, clove, cassia vera, and rubber, since they (the farmers) usually live in the hills, where water is scarce. They build small huts and stay there with their families, with very limited facilities. Some of them live in the foothills where irrigation channels are available, so they can plant rice two or three times a year.