Harris Smart writes…

A fairly recent development in Kalimantan is that Subud members have been buying land on which they are beginning agricultural projects outside the Subud land.

When Bapak came to Kalimantan in 1980, one of the things that he said should happen on the Subud land is agriculture. For one reason or another, the time for this has not yet come, and so some members are starting projects on land outside. Sometimes very close to Rungan Sari, sometimes a few kilometres away.

For example, Andrew and Stephanie Holloway have for several years been developing a beef cattle project with livestock from Bali. Another project is run by YUM which is developing crops like beans on some land on the road to Rungan Sari. The idea is to not only to grow food on the land but also to use it as a pilot project to help local people start gardens of their own to become more self-sufficient in food.

Another project has been started by a group including Viktor and Lucia Boehm, Wayne and Amalya Lerrigo and Farlan Williams on a parcel of land adjoining the Subud land. Their project is very much experimental. They are proceeding step by step.

All the agricultural projects are in a learning phase and usually the first thing that has to be done is to strengthen the soil. The soil in this part of Kalimantan is usually either very sandy or it is peat swamp and it is lacking in structure and nutrients, so the first phase of work is to make the soil richer and more capable of holding what is put into it.

I attended a selamatan on March 5 2011for the Boehm/Lerrigo/Williams’ land. A first phase has been to clear it of second growth, scrubby forest (not primeval rainforest!) and then to build up the soil. The wood is processed to make bio-char, which is then fed back into the soil. Grass is grown on the cleared land and this is also put back into the soil. Future plans include the planting of fruit trees and vegetables.

These projects are all small and very much about learning at the moment, but they represent a step towards Bapak’s advice about doing agriculture in Kalimantan.