Meurendoe — also written Meureundue, Meureudoe — was an under-afdeeling (sub-division) of the Noordkust van Atjeh in the Gouvernement Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden, adjacent to the Pidie valley. Meurendoe is documented in the historical record principally by J. Kreemer in his *De rijstcultuur in het gewest Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden* (1918) and by J. H. Heyl in his 1916 article in the Deli Courant (No. 183), as one of the rice-producing sub-divisions of the Noordkust whose surplus could, in principle, be exported to the Sumatra’s East Coast plantation belt.
The Rice Cultivation of Meurendoe
Kreemer’s regional survey of the Atjeh rice economy records that in the under-afdeeling Meurendoe the rice cultivation is carried on both on irrigated and on unirrigated fields, to a combined area of about 3,000 hectares. The irrigated fields of Meurendoe include, Kreemer notes, “alle sawah’s in het gelijknamige landschap Meureudoe” — all the sawahs in the same-named landschap (self-governing native state) of Meureudoe.
The yield of the Meurendoe rice-fields is, according to Heyl’s calculation in the Deli Courant of 8 August 1916, about 30 pikoel of rice per hectare — between the 8 pikoel per hectare of the rain-dependent sawahs of Groot-Atjeh and the 36 pikoel per hectare of the irrigated Pidie valley. The Meurendoe yield is thus respectable, and reflects the partial irrigation of the sub-division.
The Rice Surplus of Meurendoe
Meurendoe is one of the sub-divisions of the Noordkust that, in Kreemer’s regional survey, produce a surplus of rice over local consumption. Kreemer notes that “in de onderafdeelingen Sigli, Meureudoe en Bireuen is de productie als regel grooter dan de consumptie” — in the sub-divisions Sigli, Meureudoe and Bireuen the production is, as a rule, greater than the consumption. Meurendoe is thus one of the rice-surplus sub-divisions of the Noordkust, and one of the candidates for the Rijstvraagstuk — the colonial policy debate on whether Atjeh could become the rice-storehouse of Sumatra’s East Coast.
Heyl’s 1916 calculation included Meurendoe in the list of sub-divisions that could supply rice to Deli, with a cultivated sawah area of about 3,000 hectares, a total production of about 90,000 pikoel, a local consumption of about 14,000 pikoel, and a surplus for export of about 76,000 pikoel.
Significance
Meurendoe is significant for the encyclopedia of Aceh history as a documented sub-division of the Noordkust van Atjeh, as one of the rice-surplus sub-divisions of the Noordkust, and as one of the candidates for the Rijstvraagstuk of 1916 — the colonial policy debate on the economic integration of Atjeh with the Sumatra East Coast plantation belt. The Meurendoe rice-economy — partly irrigated, partly rain-dependent, with a yield of 30 pikoel per hectare — exemplifies the partial-irrigation pattern of the Noordkust, between the fully-irrigated Pidie valley and the wholly rain-dependent sawahs of Groot-Atjeh.
See Also
- Rijstbouw in Atjeh
- Sawah
- Kreemer’s De rijstcultuur in het gewest Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden (1918)
- Rijstvraagstuk (1916)
- J. Kreemer
- J. H. Heyl
- Deli Courant
- Noordkust van Atjeh
- Pidie
- Bireuen
- Sigli
- Meureudu
- Groot-Atjeh
- Sumatra’s Oostkust
- 1916
- 1918
Source
De rijstcultuur in het gewest Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden, by J. Kreemer (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1918), pp. 20, 22 (the rice cultivation and surplus of the Meurendoe sub-division). Also: Deli Courant, 8 August 1916, No. 183 (Heyl’s calculation, including Meurendoe).