Lokop was a sub-division (onderafdeeling) of the Oostkust van Atjeh in the Gouvernement Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden in the early twentieth century. Lokop is documented in the historical record principally by J. Kreemer in his *De rijstcultuur in het gewest Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden* (1918) as one of the sub-divisions of the Oostkust that did not produce enough rice for its own population: Lokop “levert ongeveer slechts 3/4 van het eigen verbruik op” — produces only about three-quarters of its own consumption.
The Rice Deficit of Lokop
Kreemer’s regional survey of the Atjeh rice economy notes that the Oostkust van Atjeh was, in 1918, “meer peper- dan rijstland” — more pepper-land than rice-land — and that “uitgestrekte gebieden wachten nog op ontginning” — extensive regions await development. Within this general Oostkust pattern, the sub-divisions varied greatly in their rice balance. The sub-division Blang Kedjérén produced, in good years, a surplus over local consumption. The sub-division Peureula had about 6,000 hectares of sawah in cultivation and about 6,000 hectares more suitable for rice, but the production was insufficient — especially for the European plantation workforce — and rice was imported.
Lokop stands in Kreemer’s survey as the most rice-deficient of the Oostkust sub-divisions: producing only about three-quarters of its own consumption, and therefore dependent on imported rice for the remaining quarter. The Lokop deficit is one of the small but instructive features of the early-twentieth-century Atjeh rice-economy: even within a single afdeeling (the Oostkust), the rice balance varied greatly by sub-division, and the regional integration of the Atjeh rice-economy required the movement of rice from surplus to deficit sub-divisions.
Significance
Lokop is significant for the encyclopedia of Aceh history as a documented sub-division of the Oostkust van Atjeh, and as the most rice-deficient sub-division of the Oostkust in 1918. The Lokop rice deficit is one of the documented features of the early-twentieth-century Atjeh rice-economy, and is recorded by Kreemer as part of his systematic regional survey of the rice balance of each sub-division of the Gouvernement Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden.
See Also
- Rijstbouw in Atjeh
- Kreemer’s De rijstcultuur in het gewest Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden (1918)
- J. Kreemer
- Oostkust van Atjeh
- Peureula
- Blang Kedjérén
- Gouvernement Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden
- 1918
Source
De rijstcultuur in het gewest Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden, by J. Kreemer (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1918), p. 20 (the rice balance of the Oostkust sub-divisions, including Lokop).