Rijstbouw in Atjeh

Rijstbouw in Atjeh (Rice cultivation in Atjeh) is the system of wet-rice and dry-rice agriculture practised across the Gouvernement Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden — the colonial administrative unit comprising Groot-Atjeh, the Noordkust, the Oostkust, the Alasland and the Westkust — as documented in detail by J. Kreemer in his *De rijstcultuur in het gewest Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden* (1918). The Atjeh rice-economy is the indispensable baseline of Atjehnese subsistence and of the early-twentieth-century colonial policy debate on the “Rice Question” of 1916.

The Atjehnese Sayings on Rice

Kreemer opens his 1918 monograph with two Atjehnese sayings that frame the place of rice in Atjehnese life:

Bèreën that nyan keuh meujân broë-pulôh — Agriculture is the master of all livelihoods. This saying, Kreemer notes, applies equally to the Atjehnese, the Gayo and the Alas peoples of the interior.
Kaja meunèh hana meusampé, kaja padé meusampôeuna — Money alone is not sufficient, but where there is abundance of rice, nothing is lacking.

These sayings express the central place of rice cultivation in the Atjehnese conception of well-being: rice is not merely a subsistence crop but the precondition of any other prosperity.

The Typology of Rice Fields

The Atjeh rice-economy rests on four principal types of rice field, each with its own Acehnese, Gayo and Alas terminology:

Sawah (Irrigated and Rain-Dependent Wet Fields)

The sawah — the wet rice field — is the principal type of Atjeh rice field. Kreemer distinguishes three sub-types:

Kunstmatig bevloeide velden (artificially irrigated fields) — oemòng ie peunieuëh in Acehnese; oemo mòc-woih in Gayo; djoemo mèlawe in Alas. These fields are irrigated by water led from rivers and streams through dug channels (leueng) or through bamboo-and-wooden flumes (peueucò or palòng).
Van regen afhankelijke velden (rain-dependent fields) — oemòng preh ie oedjèn. These fields depend solely on rainfall, retained on the field by the small enclosing dikes (ateuëng). They are the most common type in regions without irrigation, especially in Groot-Atjeh.
Moerassawah’s (swamp-rice fields) — oemòng paja; oemo paja or oemo rölöm; djoema rawang. These are fields in swampy low-lying land, where the water is too deep for ordinary sawah cultivation.

Ladang (Dry Upland Fields)

The rijstladang — the dry upland rice field — is the secondary type of Atjeh rice field. Ladang cultivation is practised in regions where the terrain does not permit sawah cultivation, especially in the upland areas of the interior and in the Témiang region of the Oostkust. Kreemer excludes ladang cultivation from the detailed treatment of his 1918 monograph, which is concerned principally with sawah cultivation.

Abandoned Fields (Pòk Ròh)

A pòk ròh — an abandoned sawah, formerly cultivated but long uncultivated — is a common feature of the Atjeh landscape, especially in the lowlands of Groot-Atjeh. Kreemer notes that many such abandoned fields are found on the Blang Bintang in the Sagi der XXVI Moekims, where they are often given out for three-year cultivation without counter-performance — a practice called padjól asé.

Terraced Sawahs

Terraced sawahs — oemòng teurata — are found on the river terraces of the interior, where the rivers of the Bukit Barisan mountains have cut broad valleys with stepped terraces. The Atjehnese sometimes convert these terraces into sawahs.

The Annual Cycle of Cultivation

The Atjeh rice year follows a cycle of fourteen named stages, from the making of the seedbed to the ripening of the grain. The cycle is organised around the two principal sowing methods: the poela method (transplanting from a seedbed) and the taboe method (direct broadcasting on the field).

The Two Sowing Methods

The poela method is the transplanting method: the seed is first sown on a seedbed (teubò seuneulòng, or nendòe on the Oostkust; pénjémen in Gayo; pénămén in Alas), and the seedlings are transplanted to the field after about 44 days. The taboe method is the direct-broadcasting method: the seed is sown directly on the field, without a seedbed. Kreemer notes that the taboe method is generally preferred in regions of unreliable rainfall (such as Groot-Atjeh), because it avoids the dependence on wet conditions at the transplanting moment; while the poela method is generally preferred in regions of reliable rainfall (such as the irrigated Pidie valley), because it produces a more regular stand and reduces the need for weeding.

The Thirteen Ripening Stages

Kreemer records thirteen named stages of rice ripening, from the first development of new leaves to the full hardening of the grain:

manja’ — new young leaves develop; plants about 14 days on the field.
dara (doro in Gayo, daro in Alas) — leaves begin to tiller; the yellow young plants take on the green colour.
meu cuntéën — rings of hair appear on the stem at the points where the leaves branch.
dòelat bae — the previously flat stem takes on a round form.
òe or boenténg — the blossom sets.
siròk (sròh or ampar in Gayo, ampar in Alas) — the blossom emerges from the top of the plant.
meu ie tjòt — the grains become milk-ripe.
meu ikòë mandè — the ears bend like the hackle of a cock; also called teukneë.
meu asèe — the grain-setting takes place.
bòeleuën peungeuh — the rice is not yet hard but turns yellow (like the full moon).
kòenèng — the rice is gold-yellow.
òelèe mandè — the grains become hard.
masak — the grains are fully hard; the rice is now ready for harvest.

If the harvest is delayed beyond the masak stage, the rice becomes reuntah — that is, the grains fall off at cutting.

Rice Varieties

Kreemer records the named varieties of rice grown in Groot-Atjeh, grouped into three classes:

Late-ripening varieties (padé rajeu’)

These require 6 to 12 months to ripen, and because they can tolerate abundant water they are planted in swamps. Varieties include: padé keudah, padé keudah gloempang, padé keudah mandé, padé poetéh rajeu’, padé reunti paja, padé radén, padé lansajé, padé poetrë banan, padé bàh sàmboh, padé peunjaman.

Early-ripening varieties (padé cut)

These ripen in about 3 months. Varieties include: padé aka, padé poetéh cut, padé seudoët.

Glutinous varieties (leukat)

These also ripen in about 3 months. Varieties include: leukat adang, leukat djeuët, leukat bring, leukat oendé, leukat dadéh, leukat lidah kendéui, leukat boengong seulimèng, leukat bin, leukat koemoenjan.

The Atjehnese planter, Kreemer notes, habitually plants several varieties (early- and late-ripening) on the same field, to hedge against the uncertain rainfall. If he planted only one late-ripening variety and the rain failed at the moment of transplanting, the seedlings would be lost.

Labour Systems

The Atjeh rice crop is grown under five principal labour arrangements:

Own cultivation — kòh keudòe — the owner of the field works it himself.
Wage-labour — kòh peung-oepah — the field is worked for a wage, with an advance (tjaram or tjinggram) paid before the harvest.
Sharecropping — mawaih (Gayo mawah, Alas blah dudé or boeloeing dudé) — the sharecropper works the field for an indefinite period in exchange for half the harvest. The field-owner provides the seed and pays half the threshing cost; other costs (buffalo hire, etc.) fall on the sharecropper. Variants include bagi lhèë (one-third to the owner), bagi peuet (one-quarter to the owner — common on the Blang Bintang in the Sagi der XXVI Moekims, where much abandoned sawah is available).
Voluntary collective labour — toempoh or bantoe (Gayo timpoh or bantoe; collective meuseuraja, Gayo djamoe tëë, Alas nërajo) — many persons work together out of free choice, typically repaid with rice, sugarcane and other refreshments.
Reciprocal labour — taelòng-moclòng or meugantché or meunoerdé (Gayo panggèlò, Alas plingari) — labour is exchanged with the obligation of return.

Measurement and Taxation

The Volume Measures

The Atjeh rice-economy uses a hierarchy of volume measures, of which the principal are:

The kating — a basket, used for measuring the harvest. A kating may contain 20 gantang (= 40 arè) or 10 gantang (= 20 arè).
The tòng — a box, typically of 1 naléh (= 8 gantang = 16 arè) or 1½ naléh.
The naléh — the standard small measure, of 8 gantang = 16 arè.
The goentja — the standard large measure, of 10 naléh = 160 arè in Groot-Atjeh. In Gayo, koentjo’s of 10, 20 and 30 naléh are distinguished; in the Alasland, a koentjo = 4 naléh.
The lèngkar — an Alas cylindrical measure, of 4 naléh = 44 säloep.

The Djakeuet (Rice Tithe)

The djakeuet is the Islamic rice tithe (zakat al-fitr) levied on the rice harvest. The minimum harvest on which the djakeuet is due is, in Groot-Atjeh, 7½ goentja (= 75 naléh = 1200 arè); on the Oostkust, 6 goentja; in Pidie, differently again. The rate is 1/10 of the harvest — that is, one naléh on every goentja harvested. In Gayo the minimum is 3 koentjo for the Meergebied and 4½ koentjo elsewhere, with the rate 1/10 — that is, one gantang on every koentjo. In the Alasland the minimum is 10 parah and the rate 1/10 (1 parah = 1 koentjo). Kreemer notes, however, that this tithe is “volstrekt niet regelmatig opgebracht” — by no means regularly paid — and is in practice left to the generosity of the payer.

The Regional Survey

Kreemer walks systematically through each of the five major divisions of the Gouvernement Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden and gives the area under rice, the type of cultivation, the average yield, and the local consumption-and-export balance:

Groot-Atjeh — ~20,000 ha cultivated, mostly rain-dependent, average yield 8 pikoel/ha.
Pidie (Noordkust) — ~16,000 ha irrigated in the Pidie valley, “the rice-granary of Atjeh”; average yield 36 pikoel/ha.
Meureudu — ~3,000 ha, partly irrigated; average yield 30 pikoel/ha.
Samalanga — irrigated around Samalanga, II Moekim Toenòng and Keudé Peudada; rain-dependent eastward to the Peusangan delta.
Lho Seumawè — almost all rain-dependent.
Lho Soekon — about three-quarters rain-dependent; ~30,000 ha still to be opened; average yield 24 pikoel/ha.
Takengon — only living-water irrigated fields, around the Tawar-meer and the Pegasing valley.
Peureula (Oostkust) — ~6,000 ha in cultivation and ~6,000 ha more suitable; ladang cultivation important in Témiang.
Blang Kedjérén — usually a surplus in good years.
Lokop — produces only about three-quarters of local consumption.
Alasland — only living-water fields; surplus exported to Singkel and the Karo highland.
Simaloer — almost all rain-dependent, regular rice imports (e.g. 1,394,285 kg in 1915).
Singkel — Benèeten-Singkelsche has some fields but suffers flooding; Simpang Kanan better; Simpang Kiri worse; Troemon largely self-sufficient.
Tapa Toean — Laboh Hadji the best rice land; then Meuké and Manggéng; Kloeët often short.
Meulaboh — much ladang cultivation in the upper regions; much swamp-sawah in the lowlands.
Tjalang — mostly ladang and swamp rice; the Daja landschappen a favourable exception.
Daja — the historic rice-storehouse of the Westkust.
Panté Tjeureumèn — the only landschap on the Westkust with artificial irrigation.

The Rice Question (Rijstvraagstuk)

The closing section of Kreemer’s 1918 monograph addresses the contemporary policy question of the “Rice Question” of 1916: could Atjeh, with improved irrigation, become the rice-storehouse of Sumatra’s East Coast plantation belt? Kreemer cites the calculation of Landbouwadviseur J. H. Heyl that of the 1.6 million pikoel of rice required by Deli, “nearly half” could come from Atjeh, more specifically from Groot-Atjeh, Pidie, Meureudu, Samalanga, Lho Soekon and Peureula.

Kreemer notes the paradox that, despite producing enough rice for the indigenous population, Atjeh imported roughly 200,000 pikoel of rice annually — chiefly Rangoon-rijst imported by the Atjehsche Handelmaatschappij and a few European firms — because Atjeh-grown rice was not preferred by the non-indigenous population (the plantation workers of Langsa, the timber-workers of Sinabang, the naval-coal station at Sabang, and the military garrison, which alone consumed ~14,000 pikoel of foreign rice per year).

Significance

The Rijstbouw in Atjeh is the indispensable baseline of the Atjehnese subsistence economy and of the early-twentieth-century colonial policy debate on the “Rice Question” of 1916. The detailed technical-and-ethnographic documentation of the Atjeh rice-economy in Kreemer’s 1918 monograph preserves the dense Acehnese-Gayo-Alas agricultural vocabulary of highland Sumatra rice cultivation at the close of the long nineteenth century, and the systematic regional survey of the rice-economy of each of the five major divisions of the Gouvernement Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden is the indispensable quantitative baseline for any historical study of the Atjeh rice-economy in the colonial period.

Source

De rijstcultuur in het gewest Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden, by J. Kreemer (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1918). OCR-filename: 20260801_233856_DLP-151-De_rijstcultuur_in_het_gewest_Atjeh_en_Onderhoorigheden_Nemotron-OCR-v2_OCR.txt, pp. 1-24 (the entire monograph).

tags	concept, agriculture, rice, colonial, dutch, acheh, 19th-century, 20th-century, sawah, ladang, mawaih, djakeuet, goentja, kreemer, heydl, rijstvraagstuk
aliases	Rijstbouw in Atjeh, Rice cultivation in Atjeh, Atjeh rice cultivation, Atjeh rice economy, Rice farming in Aceh, Atjehsche rijstbouw, Rijstcultuur in het gewest Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden

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