Rijstbouw

The Rijstbouw — rice cultivation — was, in the prescription of the 1923 brochure of the Atjeh-Instituut, the principal future export crop of Atjèh, to be substituted for the declining pepercultuur as the basis of Atjèh’s wealth in the post-war period. The brochure estimated 120,000 hectares of rice-cultivable land in the afdeelingen of Groot-Atjèh (15,000 ha), Pidië (25,000 ha), Samalanga / Peusangan / Lho’ Soekon (70,000 ha), and Oostkust (Peureula) (10,000 ha), and prescribed the three prerequisites of rice as an export article: a suitable rice variety, rice mills (pellerijen), and a sales organisation.

The Case for Rice

With the pepercultuur in decline — the pepper no longer wishing to thrive in various places — and the war “uitgestreden” (fought out), the Atjeh-Instituut brochure argued that the new great-trade article that must take the place of pepper is the rice. The neighbouring Culturen-Gewest Oostkust van Sumatra — the East Coast of Sumatra cultivation region — annually imported 140,000–150,000 tons of rice for food, and had asked again and again: can Atjèh not supply at least a part of that quantity? And to this question the experts had given an affirmative answer.

The Cultivable Surface

The surfaces suitable or to be made suitable for rice cultivation, in the various administrative afdeelingen considered in the brochure, are as follows:

Afdeeling	Hectares
Groot Atjeh	15,000
Pidië (P. Tidji, Pidie)	25,000
Samalanga, Peusangan, Lho’ Soekon (Noordkust)	70,000
Oostkust (Peureula)	10,000
Total	120,000

This is naturally a surface that, after long years, will first be brought effectively into cultivation; for the present, that is not to be thought of. But if work is done in this direction, Atjèh can, within foreseeable time, have a surplus of rice available for export.

The Three Prerequisites

Allereerst moet worden nagegaan, of de rijstbouw, zooals die op heden gedreven wordt, geschikt is om te worden beoefend voor den export. Al dadelijk moet hier worden opgemerkt, dat de Atjèhsche rijst, klein van korrel, die weliswaar gemakkelijk van de aar loslaat en op primitieve wijze ontbolsterd kan worden, geen product is, dat in zijn tegenwoordigen staat zelfs voor inlandsche consumptie buiten de streek van aanplant geschikt is. The three prerequisites for rice as an export article are:

1. A suitable rice variety — the Atjèhse rice, small of grain, is not a product that, in its present state, is suitable even for native consumption outside the region of planting. The improvement of the rice variety — through the introduction of a superior variety, the seed of which is supplied to the users of irrigation water and collected back from them after the harvest in the same quantity — is the first prerequisite.

2. Rice mills (pellerijen) — the hulling of the rice must be done mechanically, in small mills distributed through the rice-producing centres. The brochure gives a detailed capital and operating account: a mill of 1.5 tons per hour capacity, costing ƒ25,000 c.i.f. Atjèh-haven, with ƒ10,000 for transport, setting, and building — total ƒ35,000 — would yield 4,500 tons of hulled rice annually, at a cost of ƒ0.30 per zak of 100 kg or ƒ0.20 per picol.

3. A sales organisation — the sale of the product at market price, through a single sales contract with the East Coast, guarantees the market price of the product for each quantity delivered at Medan. The contract will only be concluded if the organisation of the Atjèhse rice mills is such that the supply of the required rice variety and the excellent working can be guaranteed.

The Carolina-rijst Failure

The case for a better rice variety is supported by the failure of the Carolina-rijst experiment at Tapa’ Toean some fifteen years earlier. The brilliant results obtained at Buitenzorg with Carolina-rijst led to the choice of this rice variety for a trial in the sub-afdeeling Tapa’-Toean, for which a fertile piece of sawah was provided with living water and a Hindustan plough for the tillage. The Atjèhse interested parties felt little for this more intensive tillage, and shared, from unfamiliarity with this implement, that they could not use it. Some Javanese forced labourers, well familiar with sawah cultivation, were then assigned to instruct the Atjèhse farmers; but it came down to these Javanese having to do everything alone, even the weeding, so distrustful was the population of this experiment.

But scarcely did the padi begin to ripen, or all distrust had yielded; one was delighted; never had such full ears and such large grains been seen, while the grains of this rice variety were also protected against the birds by sharp spires. The yield was twice as large as in ordinary circumstances with own seed-padi; but after the cutting the complaints began anew. Great difficulties were experienced in the treading of the grains from the ears: in contrast with the Atjèhse rice, the grains released difficultly, and the sharp spires wounded the feet. Also the stamping became troublesome, the hulling took much more time and labour, so that finally the sympathy for the Carolina-rijst again entirely cooled, and instead of, as intended, the next year planting a large surface with the harvested padi, the supply reserved for seed-padi appeared to have been destroyed by mice.

From this recollection it appears that with the introduction of a new kind of rice one cannot suffice, but that in connection therewith also new methods for the treading and hulling must be introduced.

The Atjehsche Irrigatiedienst

The engineer Van Tubergen, in his irrigation investigation of Sumatra of 1911, also visited the gewest Atjèh and brought out an extensive report, in which he judged very optimistically about the possibility and the use of irrigation works to be constructed in Atjèh. As a consequence, a B. O. W. (Burgerlijke Openbare Werken) engineer has been working in the interest of irrigation there since 1912. During the ten years since elapsed, the Atjèhse Irrigatiedienst had a two-fold task: not only to bring the irrigation water to the rice fields and to distribute it, but also to secure regions against floods — to ward off bandjir-water from the lands destined for rice or other cultivation.

Important results have been achieved on the bandjir-freedom of regions in Atjèh, especially in the area of the Peusangen and Arakoendo rivers, where works for that purpose have been spent to a total of more than half a million guilders, and where the favourable consequence is that some tens of thousands of hectares of sawah-land have been freed from the almost annual excess of flooding, whereby importantly greater harvest-certain has been obtained.

The Potential

The daarmee te verkrijgen vermeerdering van rijst-productie is zeer beteekenend en het moet mogelijk worden geacht, dat Atjèh een hoeveelheid rijst voor export beschikbaar krijgt, welke voor meer dan de helft voorziet in de nu of later ter Oostkust van Sumatra bestaande behoefte. This need can, as already mentioned, be stated at 140,000–150,000 tons annually, corresponding to about 2.5 million picol; the quantity of rice annually required for the contractors on the undertakings in Atjèh amounts to only 5,000 tons or about 100,000 picol and will probably not rise much higher, while for the population of the afdeelingen Groot-Atjèh, Pidië, Noordkust, and Oostkust of Atjèh — set at 500,000 souls — at most 1.5 million picol is to be reckoned, giving a total figure of somewhat more than 4 million picol of rice. The average yield per hectare of irrigated sawah may be set at at least 25 picol of rice; even 30 picol per hectare is by no means too high, since at present in normal years in the Pidië and Samalanga regions sawahs are known that yield a harvest of 60 picol of dry rice per hectare.

The Proverb

The Atjeh-Instituut brochure opens with an Atjèhse proverb: “Kaja meutiah hana meusampe, kaja pade meusampoerna” — “Rijkdom aan goud is niet voldoende, rijkdom aan rijst is volmaakt” (Wealth in gold is not sufficient; wealth in rice is perfect). The proverb, cited at the threshold of the brochure, frames the entire argument: the historical wealth of Atjèh, based on pepper (a trade article exchanged for gold and other goods), is to be replaced by a new wealth based on rice — the staple of life.

Significance

The rijstbouw is, in the prescription of the Atjeh-Instituut brochure of 1923, the principal future export crop of Atjèh, to be substituted for the declining pepercultuur as the basis of Atjèh’s wealth in the post-war period. The prescription — a suitable rice variety, rice mills, and a sales organisation — and the survey of the Atjèhse Irrigatiedienst since 1911 together constitute the principal Dutch program for the post-war economic development of Atjèh. The Atjèhse proverb “Kaja meutiah hana meusampe, kaja pade meusampoerna” frames the entire argument: wealth in gold (the historical basis of the pepper trade) is not sufficient; wealth in rice (the new basis of the post-war economy) is perfect.

See Also

• De Rijkdom van Atjeh (1923)
• Atjeh-Instituut
• Pepercultuur
• Atjehsche Irrigatiedienst
• Van Tubergen
• Carolina-rijst
• Pellerijen
• Keudjroen-loeeng
• Groot-Atjeh
• Pidië
• Samalanga
• Peusangan
• Lho’ Soekon
• Peureula
• Peusangen-rivier
• Arakoendo-rivier
• Tapa Toean
• Buitenzorg
• Medan
• Cultuurgebied Oostkust van Sumatra
• Bandjir
• Sawah
• Loeeng
• Aceh War
• Atjeh-oorlog
• 1911
• 1912
• 1923

Source

De Rijkdom van Atjeh, uitgegeven door het Atjeh-Instituut, Amsterdam, 1923. OCR-filename: 20260718_105749_DLP-110-De_rijkdom_van_Atjeh_Nemotron-OCR-v2_OCR.txt, pp. 9–26.