1

Becoming Plant Breeders, Rediscovering Local Varieties:

The Creativity of Farmers in Indramayu, Indonesia
Yunita T. Winarto1
Imam Ardhianto

Revolutionary Fact, Evolutionary Path: An Introduction

Before the Green Revolution we were the selectors of local seeds. During the Green
Revolution we have been the buyers and planters of government seeds. Now, we want to
be plant breeders, producing our own ideal seeds, these statements are voiced by a group
of farmer-plant breeders from Indramayu, a regency on the north coast of West Java,
Indonesia. In the past several years, a group of farmers in this regency received a training
of breeding plants in rice and vegetables in the so-called Participatory Plant Breeding in
Farmer Field School (PPB-FFS, or in farmers term: Sekolah Lapang Pemuliaan Benih,
SLPB). This school was organized by the FIELD Foundation in Indonesia in
collaboration with the PEDIGREA program of the Center for Genetic Resources,
Agricultural Wageningen University.2 More than 10 groups of farmer-plant breeders
were formed, spread in the whole regency. More importantly, this new skill and
knowledge improves their dignity and confidence to be able to produce their own seeds
and thus, reduce their dependency to governments seeds. Referring to their dependency
for almost four decades, such a phenomenon could thus be a revolutionary fact within
the continuing Green Revolution paradigm in agricultural development in Indonesia. Yet,
such a revolutionary skill and knowledge has been developed gradually in the last two
decades.
The introduction of Integrated Pest Management program in early 1990s followed by
Action Research Facility in controlling white rice stem-borer in 199596 was significant
knowledge intervention by outsiders. These programs opened their minds, stimulated
their curiosity, enhanced their creativity, and enriched their knowledge and practices in
managing the ecosystem. At present, the PEDIGREA program is still on the way, and
farmers knowledge and skills in plant-breeding is still in the making. Yet, a remarkable
phenomenon has emerged: the rediscovery of local traditional varieties whichin the last
1

Yunita T. Winarto currently holds a position as the Academy Professor in Social Science and Humanities
under the auspices of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Art and Sciences and the Indonesian Academy of
Sciences, a Visiting Professor at Gadjah Mada University, and a senior lecturer at the Department of
Anthropology, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, University of Indonesia. Imam Ardhianto is a
researcher in the collaborative research program of Bisa Dwk: Farmers empowerment in plant breeding
through collaborative video documentation and dissemination organized by the Undergraduate Program in
Anthropology, FISIP University of Indonesia in collaboration with the Indonesian Farmers Alliance of
Integrated Pest Management (Ikatan Petani Pengendalian Hama Terpadu, IPPHTI) in Indramayu, West
Java, Indonesia.
2
PEDIGREA stands for Participatory Enhancement of Diversity Genetic Resources in Asia.

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three decades after the introduction of the Green Revolutionhave gradually been
replaced by the high yielding varieties. The paper examines this reality. By being experts
in adopting the modern scientific knowledge, the farmers are able to reinvent their local
varieties, and by doing so, make the local degenerated knowledge be lively again. Yet,
this occurs in their new schema of plant-breeding enriched with modern scientific
knowledge. Could we say then that this phenomenon reveals what Tripp (1996:49) argues
of modern plant breeding that my promote the development of varieties that contribute to
a more proactive approach to local varieties, local variety selection, and a combination of
formal and informal breeding systems with more participation from farmers and much
greater use of local varieties? Yes, this is what is happening in Indramayu in which
farmers have become the professional partners in genetic resources research and
development (see Prain 1994), by also regaining their once lost varieties.
Whilst agreeing with Sandoval (1994:2628) that the memory banking (the local
farmers indigenous practices in traditional varieties of staple and supplementary crops)
is significant to be considered to, so as to avoid the de-contextualization of the genebanks (the genetic information preserved in gene-banks), we argue that the Indramayu
farmers have been able to place the gene-banks they are now collecting within the context
of their everyday practices. A kind of in situ conservation is now taking place (see
Jackson 1994:12). We found an intricate relationship, or an integration between the two
banks as mentioned by Sandoval (1994, the memory bank and the gene-bank), so as to
become one bank. Using farmers own term, we argue for only one term referring to the
synergy of the two banks, namely seeds-bank (bank benih). Once farmers talk about
their seeds-bank, they would refer to both the genetic resources and the knowledge and
skills they are now gaining. This paper thus presents the ways farmers have been
developing this kind of bank by also rediscovering the lost local varieties within the
novel schema of plant breeding. Such a process is still in the making. The revolutionary
fact is a product of a micro-evolutionary process which is also still on its way.
Throughout this process, the agency plays a significant role in combining and mixing
their old, existing, and novel knowledge and resources.3

Becoming Plant Breeders: From Farmers to Experts

We are the plant-breeders, or in farmers own term: the seed-breeders (pemulia
benih) originating from a mixture of the Indonesian scientific translation words of crossbreeding (penyilangan benih) and plant-breeding (pemuliaan tanaman). This is a novel
term, a new identity for farmer-breeders referring to those who have been practicing the
cross-breeding of their plants (rice and/or vegetables). The other farmerswho joined the
Farmer Field School in plant breedingbut are not actively doing the cross-breeding
identify themselves as the schools alumni with their varied participatory activities. A
number of them have been very active as farmer-trainers and/or administrative/field
technical staff of the program, or just as the selectors of the seeds bred by the plantbreeders. The terms of plant-breeders, seeds-selectors, or facilitators/farmer-trainers
reveal the new categories developed within the community with their particular skills and
capabilities. Different from the previous terms created by the farmers following the
Farmer Field School in Integrated Pest Management or Action Research Facility such as:
3

See Carneiro (2003) in his discussion on the agency and micro-evolution.

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FFS alumni, farmer-researchers, farmer-facilitators, the new categories have greater
connotation to the expertise as owned by scientific plant-breeders. In farmers world,
the plant-breeders are used to be the scientists with their lengthy formal training,
education, and experience and with their experiments carried out in a particular
agricultural laboratory. The state agricultural laboratory is known in its acronym as
BALITPA (Balai Penelitian Tanaman Pangan, Agricultural Research Station for Food
Crops), and hence, the seeds coming from this station are also named as benih-benih
BALITPA (BALITPAs seeds). That the farmers are now becoming plant-breeders
themselves as the scientists-plant breeders used to be has significantly improved their
pride and dignity. The training in the FFS for Participatory Plant Breeding was thus very
meaningful in making them the experts in plant-breeding. Yet, they realize that their
world of farming is different from that in the laboratory. Their limited resources and
facilities are limited in order to carry out the lengthy experiments. The limited size of
land they could afford to be the field-laboratory is one major constraint. The other one
is the un-recognized or illegitimate status of their new expertise, and hence, their
products as well. However, farmers are creative. In such a situation, they have managed
to pursue their activities. How do they respond to their constraining habitat while trying
to survive? What lessons-learned do they gain?

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Defining the ideal traits: the old and the new criteria
Elderly farmers had their own term of: mbibiti for selecting seeds prior to harvesting
that will be sown in the next planting season. The main goal of carrying out that selection
was to get the most pure seeds that would be as good as their parental seeds. There
was a rule therefore that they were not allowed to select seeds from plants grown 12
meter/s from the dikes. Avoiding the pollination with other varieties grown in the
adjacent fields was the main reason within the situation where farmers used to plant a
large number of diverse varieties. At this period prior to the introduction of the Green
Revolution technology, maintaining the same traits of each local varietygeneration to
generationbecame the main aim of farmers activity in seeds selection (mbibiti). It is
entirely different from the selection the farmer-breeders are now doing after learning
from the school. In Indonesian, the farmers name the activity as: menyeleksi (from the
root-verb: seleksi). Now, their main focus is looking for the best ideal traits among the
varied range of segregating progenies produced from the initial cross breeding. Of course,
the traits should be different from both the mother and the father varieties.
Following the lessons learned from the school, each farmer-breeder defined the ideal
traits he/she would like to get at the time he/she decided to cross-breed two different
varieties. Among a number of traits, the following are the most chosen ones: 1) high
productivity from its long panicle and number of grains, 2) the form of grain (either long
or short one), 3) appropriate height of plants, 4) maturity-age of plant (e.g. short-age
maturity), 5) resistant towards pests and diseases or having strong tissue, 6) aromatic and
palatable taste, 7) local ecologically sound variety (e.g. suitable to dry soil and weather
without irrigation, or rain-fed paddy in contrast to the high yielding variety), and 8) not
too responsive to chemical fertilizers, or in other words more responsive to organic
fertilizers. The latter two traits are not part of the traits of high yielding varieties
produced by the state, whereas not all government seeds are palatable. In farmers eyes,
therefore, their criteria are more suitable to their own need and local ecosystem condition.
The question is: could they rely only on the states genetic resources which have been
well known for their declining genetic resources and quality?
In line with the challenges the farmer-breeders face nowadays in relation to the
intellectual property right issue, i.e. that they are not allowed to produce progenies that
have been produced by the states agricultural research station, farmers are looking for
their lost genetic resources.4 The old farmers know that some ideal traits they would
like to produce could be found in their own lost varieties. Rediscovering the very
diverse genetic resources once the farmers had is the main motivation a farmer-breeder
has. He has a great expectation to find out this rich diversity through the segregation of
progenies and by doing that, conserve the biodiversity resources. Improving and
enriching the gene-bank is his aim to achieve. Accordingly, rediscovering local
varieties have been one main activity which also becomes one objectives of the
PEDIGREA program (see Smolders and Caballeda 2006:13). In comparison to their old
mbibiti, the final aim in the recent selection is in contrary to the conservation of the
parental varietys traits per s. Producing the most ideal one through selecting the very
4

The Indonesian government already declared a Law No.25 of Plant and Varieties Protection governing the
rules of producing and disseminating crop varieties, including the rule of not allowing people to produce
varieties that have been produced by another person/institution, as well as the amount of fines for those
bypassing the law.

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diverse segregating progenies while conserving the rich genetic resources are part of the
farmer-breeders dreams. This is a path of rediscovering their lost knowledge and
resources in a novel way of producing seeds.
Selecting the progenies: adapting to local resources and needs
Through training, the farmer-breeders learned to do four methods of selection in the
breeding of self-pollinating crops (i.e. rice), namely: 1) Bulk selection, 2) Pedigree
selection, 3) modified pedigree/bulk (semi-pedigree) selection, and 4) backcross selection
(see Smolders and Caballeda 2006:101).5 Since farmers have limited resources,
especially appropriate size of lands for carrying out the planting and testing up to such a
long time (up to F10 or 10 planting seasons), various modifications were made. An
example of these is the shorter period of selecting and testing a farmer-breeder did. From
crossing a wild-rice variety and a local traditional one, the farmer selected four
segregating progenies only to be planted in the next season (F2). However, beyond his
expectation, he discovered a large number of segregation in the next generation. Without
considering either Bulk or Pedigree selection method, he decided to only select the most
ideal traits he liked best and then planted them in the next season (F3). So was what he
did until a high degree of homozygocity of the traits he preferred was reached. By doing
that, he did not need to wait until F10. A shorter period of time in producing the most
preferred one was what he gained, e.g. in F5 rather than in F10. This is Metode Johar
(Johar method), he claimed referring to his own method by applying his own nick name
in it. What did he do with the rests? He planted them together in one plot/row, harvested
and used them for daily meals. These are rice of 50,000 tastes, he said pointing to the
rice we were about to eat together. Another farmer also pointed out: These are rice of 50
tastes. The exaggerated number was just mentioned to show the very diverse segregating
progenies they were able to produce, but were not kept for the next selection stage or for
future cross-breeding. A similar method with some degree of variations was also
developed by other farmer-breeders to save time and space.

Smolders and Caballeda (2006:10102) say that in the bulk selection method, after making the initial
cross, the segregating progenies are propagated till F4 or F6 without selection. Once a high degree of
homozygocity is reached, individual selection with progeny testing is applied. Plant or pedigree selections
are made in the F6. Whereas in the pedigree selection method, the progeny (or offspring) of a single
plant is tested,.. Pedigree selection starts in F2, single well performing plants are selecting and separately
harvested. However, various modifications can be made. In the modified pedigree/bulk selection
technique bulk selection is applied from F2 until the F4 which is followed by pedigree selection
(Smolders and Caballeda 2006:104).

As experienced by the aforementioned farmer breeder, the very diverse segregating

progenies produced by crossing local variety (either with another local variety, with wildor government-varieties) was a surprising phenomenon. In the earlier time, their
concentration was on mbibiti (selecting the best qualified trait similar to the parent
varieties) without paying much attention to the segregating progenies. Now, selecting the
best from the segregating ones is their main concern. Hence, the very rich performances
of the progenies are something novel. For another farmer-breeder who has a great interest
and motivation to follow the development of such very diverse characteristics, crossing
the varied kinds of varieties is his main activity. Up to now, he has crossed 28 local
varieties (for both the male and female seeds), and in total has reached up to 52 crossings
in the dry season of 2006. For each, he delayed the selection process up to F2. In F3, he
began selecting a few number of segregating progenies and planted them in separate
plots. The F2 seeds were planted for comparison. He repeated this until F4 in the recent
rainy season of 2006/07. The overall segregating progenies have now reached 94.
These cases reveal the adaptability of farmers to their needs and local conditions in
practicing the new modern knowledge and skills of plant-breeding, as well as the
variation each farmer-breeder does. The return of their local varieties is another
prevailing phenomenon.
Rediscovering Local Varieties, Reinventing Local Knowledge

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It was a surprise whenat the time we were visiting the farmer-breeders houseswe
found bundles of rice grains hanged with their stalks. Why? In the last seventeen years of
examining farmers practices, only some parts of grains were kept at home in bags placed
somewhere for farmers consumption. The stalks were gone. Where were the rests? They
were gone to the hands of traders and to the markets. Where were the grains kept for
seeds? They were stored in the shops, wrapped in plastic bags, sold by the shop-owners
and purchased by farmers in the beginning of each planting season. Hence, hanging the
grains with their stalks was a return of old-practice at the time the elderly farmers were
planting their local varieties. We also found varied ways of preserving those grains which
were selected for cross-breeding, or were kept as gene-bank. Some farmers place them in
small bottles, some in mineral plastic bottles, some add charcoal, burnt-husks, or a kind
of dried-flowers into the bottles, and some just put the seeds in plastic bags placed in a
box. Such practices were gone throughout the past four decades of the Green Revolution.
Now the old practices return, yet not exactly in a similar way as the elderly farmers did a
long time ago. If the old practice could be reinvented in a new way, how could the
farmers discover their once lost varieties?

It is fortunate that in the hilly areas of West Java province, farmers are still planting
rice suitable for rain-fed ecosystem. Farmers name the seeds as padi gogo rancah,
referring to the paddy grown in a dry un-irrigated soil. The farmer-breeders know that
those paddy should consist of local varieties that could not be grown in the wet-irrigated
rice fields. The question is how could they get the seeds? Farmers are creative. One
farmer-breeder made announcement in the village meetings, village festivities, and other
get-together events of his willingness to give rewards to those who could get local
traditional seeds from elsewhere. It did work. Through three farmers in his village, he

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could collect 11 local varieties. In another occasion he asked wage labourers to collect
whatever local seeds they could find out while doing the harvesting in the hilly areas not
too far from his village. Another way was collecting seeds through seeds-exchange with
other farmers in ritual event out of village, visiting farmers in distant places, or
participating in farmers meetings elsewhere. Thus, the seeds come from various external
places.
Whilst collecting local seeds is still possible, could the farmers regain the names and
knowledge related to those varieties? Not all farmer-breeders have the experience of
planting rice prior to the Green Revolution period in Indonesia. Hence, they have to rely
on the information brought by those submitting the seeds, or if the information is missing,
reactivate their own knowledge. If not, they have to seek elderly farmers who could still
identify the names and characteristics of each local traditional seed and learn from them
How about the missing name if it could not be identified by the elderly farmers? One
farmer-breeder just gave a new name to one local variety brought by the other farmers.
Once the rediscovered-local-seeds are spread from farmer-to-farmer, so also their names,
including the new invented one, and their characteristics.6 Since such a discovery also
constitutes a novel script, getting confirmation from elderly farmers have been
common.
The new gene-bank was kept by each farmer-breeder to be used as the parent seeds
later if they would like to cross-breed those varieties. Through cross-breeding with
various other varieties (either the local ones, the governments and the wild-varieties), the
farmer-breeders gain new knowledge and understanding of the novel traits found in the
progenies. Which characteristics are similar to the parent (either the mother or the father),
and which ones are the new traits developed through the breeding? Through a detailed
observation and selection, each farmer-breeder obtain not only a confirmation of their
rediscovery local seeds and knowledge, but also the novel traits. For many times we
heard their surprises of how great the variation was, even in one plant only. An old
farmer-breeder pointed out the diverse height of paddy stems in one plant. Not only that.
The maturity age of those diverse stems also varies. Hence, he could harvest the panicles
of one rice hill in different periods of time. The seeds the farmer-breeders have are not
only originated from their local traditional varieties. Some farmers who went abroad to
join conferences, brought home some seeds from foreign countries such as from Japan,
Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, and Laos with each particular traits and performances.
Whether those varieties are suitable to the local ecological condition is another new
understanding. What kinds of traits are found in the progenies of these foreign seeds
crossed with the local ones? This again forms a new source of inputs into farmers
schema of breeding plants.
Such is the very rich knowledge the farmer-breeders learn from rediscovering local
varieties, obtaining foreign seeds, and cross-breeding them with other varieties. The olddeactivated knowledge has been returned, enriched with the new ones within the new
schema of breeding rice developed on the basis of the scientific modern knowledge of
cross-breeding. Those varied sources are not only mixed into one schema of breeding
6

Some of the rediscovered local varieties are known by farmers as: Gundil Merah, Gundil Putih, Gundil
Jangkung Jalawara Merah, Jalawara Putih, Sk, Blirik, Sriputih (new invented name), Longong,
Glwang, Marong, Solok Merah, Solok Putih, Ketan Salam, Ketan Itam, and Ketan Untup. The latest three
are sticky rice (glutinuous rice).

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rice, but are always being enriched through each breeding and the continuous planting of
the segregating progenies each farmer does. Their knowledge is thus always in the
making without a clear-cut boundary between the memory bank and the gene-bank as
mentioned by Sandoval (1994),

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Reinventing Tradition in a Modern Scientific Domain: A Dialectic
The ongoing phenomenon of farmer-breeders activity in Indramayu of West Java
province in Indonesia represents an interesting case of how the dialectic is going on
between the modern scientific knowledge and farmers existing knowledge by also
reinventing their tradition of planting crops. The result is amazing where the local
knowledge and tradition were being integrated into the modern scientific ways of plantbreeding. The agencies creative combination of old and new ideas, and the adjustment
into the existing local conditions of habitat and resources result in a modified way of
breeding seeds. The activation of old memories within the new schema of plant breeding
on the basis of their needs and interests, however, does not automatically yield any
outputs without the material substance. Here, the use of material substance is a very
significant factor in putting the ideas into action. A formation of a new habitus in crop
farming is thus on the way. The cultural of plant breeding in crop farming is in motion.
Would the result create a new form of evolutionary change in crop farming? A
longitudinal study following this process is thus necessary.
Acknowledgement
This paper is based on our research in 200607 while also documenting the ongoing
phenomena through video documentation entitled: Bisa Dwk (We Can Do it
Ourselves). Our gratitude to the Undergraduate Program of the Department of
Anthropology and the Dean of the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, University of
Indonesia; the Embassy of the Republic of Finland; and the Academy Professorship
Indonesia under the auspices of KNAW (The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and
Sciences) and AIPI (The Indonesian Academy of Sciences) for their supports in carrying
out both the research and video documentation. Our thanks also go to all farmer-breeders
from the Indonesian Farmers Alliance of Integrated Pest Management of the Regency of
Indramayu, and the FIELD Indonesia Foundation for their collaborative works.
References
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2003
Evolutionism in Cultural Anthropology. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press.
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1994
Ex Situ Conservation on Plant Genetic Resources, with Special Reference to Rice,
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48, 1992. Alaminos, Pangasinan. Pp.1122.
Prain, G.D.
1994
Local Knowledge and Global Science: The Need for Partnership in Plant Genetic
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and Development. May 48, 1992. Alaminos, Pangasinan. Pp.110.
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1994
Memory Banking: The Conservation of Cultural and Genetic Diversity in
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Smolders, H. and E. Caballeda

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2006

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