J. H. Heyl was a Dutch colonial agricultural scientist who served as Landbouwadviseur (Agricultural Adviser) to the Gouvernement Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden in the 1910s, and whose article in the Deli Courant of 8 August 1916 (No. 183) was the first systematic published calculation of the Atjeh rice surplus available for export to the Sumatra’s East Coast plantation belt. Heyl’s calculation is the principal quantitative source for the Rijstvraagstuk of 1916 — the Dutch colonial policy debate on whether Atjeh could become the rice-storehouse of Deli — and is reproduced by J. Kreemer in his *De rijstcultuur in het gewest Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden* (1918).
Career
Heyl served as Landbouwadviseur — Agricultural Adviser — to the Gouvernement Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden, the regional colonial government of Atjeh. The post of Landbouwadviseur was a technical-scientific one: the holder was responsible for advising the regional government on agricultural policy, for surveying the agricultural potential of the region, and for reporting on the technical and economic questions of the Atjeh agricultural economy. In the early 1910s the Landbouwadviseur was the principal specialist official in the Atjeh civil administration, alongside the Controleur B.B. generalists and the Bestuursassistent technical officials.
The 1916 Deli Courant Article
In 1916 Heyl contributed to the Deli Courant — the daily newspaper of the Deli planters, published at Medan — a series of articles on the Atjeh rice question, the most important of which appeared in the issue of 8 August 1916 (No. 183). This article formed part of the broader Rijstvraagstuk debate of 1916 conducted in the columns of the Deli Courant by Heyl, Ackerstaff and Van Tubergen.
Heyl’s Calculation
Heyl’s article set out the first systematic calculation of the Atjeh rice surplus available for export to Deli. He began from the principle that only a defined subset of the Atjeh regions could be considered as potential rice-exporters. He excluded the Westkust (which produced only for its own needs), the Peusangan area (because the results of the normalisation of the Peusangan-rivier were not yet predictable), and the inland valleys (especially those of Tripa and Alas), because of transport difficulties.
The candidates were therefore the Noordkust and the Oostkust of Atjeh, more specifically Groot-Atjeh, Pidie, Meureudu, Samalanga, Lho Soekon and Peureula. Heyl calculated that these regions together contained approximately 84,160 hectares of cultivated sawah, producing on average 8 to 36 pikoel of rice per hectare according to region. The total production was approximately 1.6 million pikoel, of which roughly 381,500 pikoel were consumed locally, leaving a surplus of approximately 786,300 pikoel available for export to Deli.
Heyl’s Verdict
Heyl’s verdict was that of the 1.6 million pikoel of rice required annually by the Deli plantations, “nearly half” could come from Atjeh. This was both a hopeful and a limiting conclusion: Atjeh’s rice-economy could be developed into an important supplier of the East Coast, but it could not displace the Rangoon rice, Siam rice and Saigon rice that remained essential to the Deli plantations.
Heyl further noted that the average yield of Atjeh rice-fields varied greatly by region: 8 pikoel per hectare in Groot-Atjeh (where the sawahs were almost wholly rain-dependent and irrigation was insufficient), 36 pikoel per hectare in Pidie (where the irrigated Pidie valley was the rice-granary of Atjeh), 30 pikoel per hectare in Meureudu and in Peureula, and 24 pikoel per hectare in Lho Soekon. These regional differences in yield were the direct consequence of the relative development of irrigation in each region.
Kreemer’s Use of Heyl
J. Kreemer’s 1918 monograph De rijstcultuur in het gewest Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden cites Heyl’s article in the Deli Courant of 8 August 1916 (No. 183) twice: first, for the figure of 8 pikoel per hectare as the average yield in Groot-Atjeh (against 36 in Pidie, 30 in Meureudu, and 24 in Lho Soekon); and second, for the calculation that of the 1.6 million pikoel of rice required by Deli, “nearly half” could come from Atjeh. Kreemer reproduces Heyl’s table in full, with the regional breakdown of cultivated sawah, average yield, total production, local consumption and surplus available for export.
Significance
Heyl is significant for the encyclopedia of Aceh history as the principal quantitative source for the early-twentieth-century Atjeh rice-economy. His 1916 calculation is the indispensable baseline for any historical study of the Atjeh rice surplus and of the proposed economic integration of Atjeh with the Sumatra East Coast plantation belt. He exemplifies the type of the colonial agricultural scientist — the technical specialist who, in the post-pacification period, was charged with the systematic survey of the agricultural potential of the newly-pacified territory and with the formulation of policy recommendations for its development.
See Also
- Rijstvraagstuk (1916)
- Kreemer’s De rijstcultuur in het gewest Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden (1918)
- Rijstbouw in Atjeh
- Ackerstaff
- Van Tubergen
- Deli Courant
- Deli
- Sumatra’s Oostkust
- Gouvernement Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden
- Groot-Atjeh
- Pidie
- Meureudu
- Samalanga
- Lho Soekon
- Peureula
- Peusangan-rivier
- Tripa
- Alasland
- Rangoon
- Siam
- Saigon
- 1916
- 1918
Source
De rijstcultuur in het gewest Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden, by J. Kreemer (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1918), pp. 15, 22-24 (citing Deli Courant, 8 August 1916, No. 183). Also: Deli Courant, 1916, Nos. 162, 167, 171, 172, 183, 184 (the Rijstvraagstuk series, with articles by Heyl, Ackerstaff, and Van Tubergen).