Peat Farmer

Pak Sukri from Punggur, West Kalimantan (see String of Pearls) is one of the best farmers I have ever met.  Even more so given that he is successfully farming a substrate that agronomists will tell you is unproductive, i.e. peat soils. Deep peat soils.  Over a period of several years, he drains, compresses, and carefully burns the peat. When he has reduced the peat layer to within a meter or so of the mineral soil underneath (now enriched by the slow release of nutrients from the organic material above), he  uses double-transplanted seedlings with long roots and a 2 meter dibble stick to start planting rice.  The rice seedlings are tapping into the mineral soil; the peat simply provides support and continual moisture. I am convinced that Pak Sukri could figure out a way to farm the moon. [NOTE: Elysa worked with Pak Sukri and took this photo (thx, Elysa); pineapples, cassava, rice, coconuts, and taro are visible in his field].

String of Pearls

The Banjarese farmers in Punggur on the coast of West Kalimantan create diverse agroforestry systems by draining, burning, and slowly getting rid of the peat that underlies local forests. A network of canals - dug by hand - grid the area and regulate the daily tidal flow.

Coconuts are one of the most important plant products during the early developmental stages of these systems. To get the coconuts to market, they string them together in long chains and float them out in the canals.