The ecological transition in Bali
Abstract
This thesis focuses on agricultural and socioeconomic
transformations in three villages in Kabupaten Gianyar,
southern Bali. The analyses of changes occurring in village
rice agriculture and family economics are set within the
perspective of Human Ecology, and examine broadscale shifts in
the natural and social ecological balance of the traditional
island economy.
Bali has a long-held reputation for its rice agriculture,
social and religious organisation and artistic creativity.
These features have been intensely affected by a range of
externally initiated changes since the Dutch invasion at the
turn of the century. Three main contemporary sources of
change can be identified: government initiated development
programmes, urbanisation and tourism. During the last 15
years the rate of modernising changes has accelerated.
The Green Revolution has been promoted throughout the Third
World, including Indonesia, as a simultaneous solution to both
increasing staple food production and material welfare. Two
metrics, energy and money, were used to examine the probity of
development strategies based on Green Revolution technology.
In contrast, detailed changes in village socioeconomics were
examined by an analysis of patterns of income and expenditure,
both within and between each of the three villages.
The sustainability of Balinese agriculture has been
transformed by the introduction of Green Revolution
technology. This technology, at island-level, has led to
substantial increases in total rice production, while
radically decreasing the energy efficiency of production.
This contrasts with increasing yield variability and dubious
economic advantages for the individual farmer. In the
socioeconomic sphere, modernisation of the island economy has
led to increasing material inequality, even within relatively
small village communities. Bali has moved from being a wholly
self-provisioning, egalitarian and sustainable society, into
one characterised by dependence on imports of essential goods
and services, many of them non-renewable.
The results of the analysis suggest that there are several
ways in which the government, people and farmers of Bali can,
by complementary 'reversals'of policy and practice, move
towards a less energy intensive, more profitable and more
sustainable pattern of village agriculture and economics.