Labour system

There are three main labour sources in the farm labour system in Jambi namely family labour, paid and collective labour. The main source of labour is family members. Most of the work in the rubber plantation is completed by the farmer, his wife and his family (son, daughter, or son or daughter in law). Men usually do the heavy work such as cutting the trees, burning debris, fencing and digging holes for seedlings. Women usually help men with some parts of the land clearing, but mostly they are responsible for planting paddy rice, vegetables, preparing food and taking care of their children.

Traditional families are usually large with more than three or four children, but this is becoming less common with the new generation. The children help their parents until they get married and build new family/households. Before marriage, they share the latex; mostly it goes to their parents but the children can get some for their needs. If their children get married, the money mostly will go to the family of their children

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but they will also give some to their parents. There is no formal agreement between family members as this scheme is in order to help family members. Next, the new households will open their own new rubber agroforest by cutting and burning the forest.

The availability of family labour may be insufficient to fulfil all the labour demands of a rubber garden. In addition, working together as collective labour is not popular in the rubber garden and the rubber farmers depend on paid labour. Paid labour for some poor farmers is an opportunity for them to receive payment for work. But for the other farmers it means more costs that are difficult for them to afford. Wealthy farmers in the village may use labour to compensate for their time in other business, or they just have to use it as they have large areas of rubber.

There are different schemes to hire labour at different stages of rubber garden establishment. In getting land, wealthy farmers may open the forest or other old jungle rubber by paying other farmers to undertake the work. One side provides labour to open the forest ready for the planting of rubber seedlings, while the other provides cash for the land clearing, seedlings and fertiliser. When the rubber garden is established, the land is, with the rubber on it, divided in half or to what they have agreed to. In this system poor farmers can get access to land for cultivation with less capital and wealthy farmers obtain a developed rubber garden.

The other type of labour is collective labour or labour sharing agricultural activities. One of the characteristics of the villages in the study site is the existence of social groups. The farmers work together to help each other on their farms and on other occasions. There are some schemes of collective action that have been established in Rantau Pandan, Lubuk Kayu Aro and Sepunggur villages for generations including such traditional systems as: Pelerin, Gotong royong, julo-julo, berselang and farmers‟ groups.

Pelerin; is a labour sharing group among the community in private land. Farmers

can join this group, but usually the members are neighbours in the village or they share land borders. They arrange a time for working based on their agreement and mostly during the season of planting paddy rice. A farmer who is not able to work when required must make it up by paying a daily wage or by offering unpaid labour

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on another day. This collective work is usually on individual land and more often agricultural land and wet paddy land, but rarely or never in their rubber garden.

Gotong royong; is collective action on communal lands, public facilities, and other

village properties under non-private ownership. This activity is arranged by the village leader and is voluntary. The time is agreed in a meeting and the activities are agreed to by the community. There is no obligation to pay if absent but people are usually ashamed if they do not come.

Julo-julo; is collective capital (it can be money or rice) to be used for someone to

carry out a big event such as being married or circumcised, a death or a birth.

Berselang; is labour sharing or collective labour for planting and harvesting paddy

rice in the upland area usually using an extensive system. This working is on private individual land and mostly at the beginning of the planting season and at the end of harvesting. The owner of the land usually prepares food and drinks for the other farmers who are mostly young farmers. This system has become rare as the upland paddy system is seldom used now-a-days. Wetland paddy which is an intensive system introduced by the government has replaced the upland paddy system.

Women are usually more active in the wetland paddy system and sometimes men are keen to help after finishing activities in their rubber garden.

Farmers’ groups; Farmers‟ groups were formed mainly by the government for

facilitating a connection between government agencies and farmers to exchange information, to simplify administration and to deliver information and/or incentives. Farmers‟ groups are established mostly if there is a government project, such as replanting clonal rubber or introducing new varieties of paddy rice. In agricultural activities, the focus for these groups is usually extension activities to maintain a high production of paddy rice.

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