“In my community we have a traditional way of life that is known as “Gotong royong” or working together, helping each other… I realize that many strengths and resources are found in myself, my sending body, and my community.”

On the behalf of the Protestant Church in Bali, the Asian Rural Institute would like to extend its deep gratitude to Global Ministries for providing a scholarship to Mr. Gede Suarna to attend the Asian Rural Institute’s Rural Leaders Training Program (April – December 2007). By supporting Gede you are helping to better a whole community back in Bali.

Isao Nozaki
Director

The motto of Gede’s sending organization “Maha Boga Marga” nicely sums up his work. Literally translated it means “big food way,” but he himself explains it as “the path to prosperity.” This basic understanding of the connection between food and prosperity is very important in his rural community. Furthermore, he is quick to point out that this motto encompasses all people without discrimination.

With his calm demeanor and agreeable nature, Gede seems a perfect model of the gentle people of Bali. His easygoing temperament has certainly proved an asset in working with his fellow international participants. For the practical aspects of the agricultural training he was assigned to work as a part of a small group, with each member serving as a leader for three weeks in rotation. This means that people from different countries, religions, and backgrounds as well as volunteers and staff must work together. During his term as group leader Gede served as a truly peaceful leader, able to make decisions, slow to anger, and abundant in kindness.

With his keen interest in learning new skills, Gede used his time at ARI to study aquaculture and crops and vegetables. He was especially excited about learning to build fish ponds, as they can provide a good income with limited financial input. Although his concentration at ARI was learning fish farming, he has also learned about brooding chickens and ducks. With his current

knowledge in keeping large animals, such as water buffalo, he graduates from ARI with a very broad knowledge of livestock.

Gede was also an integral part of the planning and preparation of ARI’s annual Harvest Thanksgiving Celebration (HTC) in October. As tourism on Bali gradually returns after the two terrorist attacks, it is important for him to be able to help stage events to garner interest in the rural communities he serves. He was promoted to chairperson of his committee for HTC in which he organized the children’s games and bazaar that sold the participant’s handicrafts. While many tourists come to enjoy the natural beauty of Bali, Gede thinks that they could further improve tourism by expanding on their own local festivals.

I was born in a small village on Bali Island. My father is a farmer with a one hectare rice field. I have three brothers and five sisters. Most of the community members in my village are farmers. They have a simple life.

I entered GKPB [The Protestant Christian Church in Bali] in 1982, was baptized in 1987, and became a member of the youth community of GKPB. In this community I studied about leadership – to learn about organizing, sharing, being a chairperson, loving each other, and growing closer to God.

With our pastor I went to our congregation’s houses to hear what their problems are and talk with them to find a good solution to solve their problems. Most of the families in our congregation are farmers. They have coconuts, cocoa, coffee, vanilla and bananas. Some of them have paddy fields, soybeans and vegetables. They have native chickens, pigs, goats and cows. They want to know how to cultivate their land in an organic system… As Christians are a minority population in the community we ask our congregation to be good role models for others members of the community.

As a coordinator of micro-finance I set up our work in seven steps: interview, document analysis, survey, credit analysis, making decision, realization, and follow up. The last is very important. Follow up is done with guidance to the new business of our clients as well as business consultation when they find difficulties in their business. To achieve the target is important but we have never forgotten to build good relationships with our clients in this program.

I started to build some (micro finance) groups. One group was in a small village. After realization of credit I started to give training to this group for their business. In this group, all members wanted to raise pigs as their business. I knew something about this work but I had never actually raised pigs. I worked with them carefully.

Firstly, I observed our farmers how they raise pigs. They used a traditional system. When I calculated this system, I found it is not economical. They needed a very long time to raise their

pigs until they were ready to sell their pigs. They kept their pigs under the trees and gave only kitchen garbage. Besides that, all the piglets went around their house and made the house not comfortable, dirty and muddy.

I encouraged them to do a new system for their business. I changed the variety of pig from native pig to a new variety (Landrace and Duroc variety). I guided them how to manage their business in pig raising using this new system. The new system is an intensified system. There are special pens (nursing pens) and fattening pens. The pigs must be given feed according to the period of starter, grower and finisher. I taught them how to make the feeding formula. By this system the farmers created income generation in a shorter time than the old system. After five to six months of fattening they could sell their pigs at a higher price.

After success with this program I continued promoting another program. This program was cattle fattening. I started this program after reading in a newspaper about Bovine Spongiform Encephalitis (BSE) disease attacked many cattle in England and spread to other countries. Our country stopped importing cattle or meat from Europe. On the other side, our country doesn’t have enough stock to supply our people.

I started this program in some groups in rural areas and it still exists now. Women can join this program. The cattle are kept in a pen and given grass 10% and consecrate food 1% according to body weight. This program is running very well in the rural area.

During our training in ARI we had practical leadership training in our group for one month. We had certain goals and we achieved these goals by leading group members. In the end of our leadership rotation there was an evaluation to make me have understanding of what I had done during my leadership in our group. For me this evaluation was very important to know my strengths and weaknesses during my leadership by getting input from other members.

Now after training in ARI, I think as a rural leader I must have skills to lead the people and carry them in order to raise their own responsibility and participation. What I learned about leadership in ARI was based on the leadership of Jesus Christ. He knew his aim to come to this world and guide us. He knew each of our abilities, natures, burdens, weaknesses, joys, and sadness. Then, He trained us to be leaders and sent us to our own communities all over the world.

When I first arrived at ARI for one week during morning exercise, I could not know that Mr. Nozaki was the Director of ARI. He was almost the first person to arrive and then went to clean the toilet in the main building. In my community the boss has never come first and never does cleaning the toilet!

Also, gender equality is very good within members of Japanese families. Husbands cook food for the family. They also do cleaning, dish washing, shopping, etc. In ARI I was so surprised when I had a rotation to work in the kitchen, because in my community these kinds of job are only to be done by women.

As a staff in my organization with a veterinarian background I had never received training about agriculture. After completing my studies for nine months in ARI, I learned new skills, knowledge and experiences in organic farming systems. I have enough confidence to enhance my community by doing organic farming with them.

Before coming to ARI I was not interested in organic farming because I had never known about organic farming exactly. According to the farmers, organic farming is not profitable. Organic products have the same price as chemical products.

But economically, organic farming is really profitable. We do not use chemical fertilizers and pesticides that are purchased from the company at an expensive price. This means doing organic farming has little or zero budget…. [Also] in my country, when the green revolution was started the farmers has started using chemical pesticides on their land. From year to year the farmers used more pesticides and stronger than before, and the side effects of chemical pesticides became very dangerous to human beings and the environment.

In my community fish ponds are constructed in swamp lands near by flowing streams…. In ARI I learned how to raise fish in concrete cement pond blocks on dry land without flowing water. I also learned how to prepare pellet food using different ingredients, how to differentiate male and female fish, how to spawn different kinds of fish…. After completion of this training when I return home I will teach my people all the techniques I learned at ARI in fish farming.

I learned about rice-duck integration as well. The Aigamo Ducks are a kind of duck used to control weeds in paddy fields. After the rice has been transplanted in the fields and weeds start to grow, the ducks are introduced into the field. The ducks are used to control weeds, as they feed on the weeds. The ducks are also used to control insects and harmful insects in the paddy field. Besides the pest control, the ducks pass out their manure, which is evenly spread in the field, which will serve as a good source of organic fertilizer for the paddy field. In addition to that, their continuous paddling in the paddy field improves the soil texture through the muddy water which will help to increase the rice yield.

My dream is to establish a healthy environment and food self-sufficient communities through sustainable agriculture.

Bali is a small island in Indonesia and it is a popular tourist destination. The biggest income of Bali comes from tourism. Now there is a big gap between the tourism sector and agriculture. In this case agricultural land and the environment are exploited to develop the tourism sector. Now our government is importing rice from others countries. Every year one thousand hectares of agricultural land is closed to build hotels, restaurants, supermarkets, garment factories, offices and the like. Some people very easily sell their lands to the investors because the land price is increasing and they leave their farming activity.

Starting from the green revolution the farmers have been using chemical fertilizer and pesticides because they do not have enough knowledge about the dangers of chemical pesticides. We are

eating food that contains residue chemical pesticides, and people are attacked by cancer and high blood pressure is increasing because they consume unhealthy food.

However, Bali still has the potential to produce safe food and sufficient food to feed itself…. In order to make my dream a reality, my role in this will be to create community awareness through mobilization of various stakeholders like farmers, community leaders, government extension workers, women’s group, youth groups, and every household to embark on sustainable agriculture for food self sufficiency.

I have found a clear vision for the future and by putting my plans into action it can be achieved.