Women Farmers Take on Climate Change in Rural Indonesia

Mama Kapas is our program to return traditional, regenerative cotton farming to Indonesia’s dry East. From July to September, we visited all seven communities to evaluate the first season.

Mama Jupiter with the cotton she grew behind her house in Timor Tengah Selatan.

Traveling Indonesia’s Last Mile

It’s just one of many surprises and things not going according to plan: The ship can’t make it to the dock, so we have to take off our shoes and wade a few meters through the sea to get a little closer. We finally board the boat from a floating pier - moving precariously up and down along with the waves underneath. Almost as if to warn us of what is to come: A rough sea ahead, with waves that let our boat rise and fall rapidly, causing muffled screams and prayers all around.

That was just one trip of many we took this year for our Mama Kapas program, bringing back regenerative cotton cultivation to Indonesia’s Eastern provinces. Meeting our farmers at the end of this harvesting cycle takes a lot of time - and patience. From flights, car rides and pickup trucks to the occasional motorcycle, hikes and, yes, a small speedboat at the mercy of the sea.

Reaching our Mamas’ farms would often require several days of travel - by plane, boat, pickup truck and on foot.

From July to September we have visited a total of seven communities. In Nusa Penida, Lombok, Sumbawa and Timor.

In Timor we even had to cross a river bed that is only passable during the dry season

Getting Women Ready for Climate Change

Through Mama Kapas, we want to create new sources of incomes for women in Eastern Indonesia - especially during the often harsh dry season when the incomes of entire families can drop below US$20 per month. But there is more: Talking to researchers and seasoned farmers alike, we want to identify and bring back traditional farming practices (Tumpang Sari) that we know can restore soil health and make these communities more resilient against the impacts of climate change.

Going back to regenerative practices isn’t easy - and requires a lot of training and capcity building. Mbak Lina, the leader of our cotton initiative in East Java came along to share her experience with women in Timor Tengah Selatan.

Because the signs of a changing climate are already everywhere - and it’s not just higher temperatures: Long dry spells are followed by sudden, heavy rainfall. Rainfall that washes away what little fertile topsoil there is left. The degraded soil is unable to absorb let alone hold all the water, making landslides more and more common. This year again many streets and bridges were severely damaged, leaving some villages unreachable for months.

One of our Mamas in her farm in Nusa Penida. Going back to the agroforestry systems of their ancestors holds many benefits - from diversifying risk of harvest failure to healthier soils that are more resilient against drought and erosion.

A healthy soil can mitigate some of those risks - because it readily absorbs water, and can store it for much longer. Additional cover crops like our gliricidia trees provide additional stability with their roots - and protect the soil from drying out. The right compost can balance the pH levels of the soil, feed the microorganisms and mushrooms that quite literally hold the soil together and allow the soil to hold more water.

In Timor large snails were responsible for much of the lost harvest. They eat the leaves of our cotton trees, leaving them stunted. We’re now researching natural ways to better manage this new pest during the next season.

Athletic Cows, Monster Snails and Other Challenges

But the way ahead is still long - and full of obstacles.

As Denica shared a while ago, it’s not just a matter of convincing sceptical farmers to leave behind chemical pesticides and fertilizers. There is no shortage of challenges, setbacks and learnings along the way. And they’re different wherever we go:

Taking soil samples is important to track changes in soil organic carbon (SOC) and other indicators of soil health - giving us a clear baseline and showing us what we need to improve.

In Timor, it was rogue calves jumping even 1.5m high fences - as well as large snails eating away at the cotton. Leaving two villages with a cotton harvest of only 5kg. In Bali we’re now looking for better ways to keep the Red Cotton Bug away. And in Sumbawa, we need to find a more drought-resistant cotton species as the one we had chosen last year did not fare very well in the dry weather.

One of our big goals is to grow the cotton in a way that is rainfall reliant - and therefore does not put additional strain on already limited water resources. In Sumbawa, NTB, we will try a different cotton type next season - one that’s more resilient against dry weather.

What amazed me the most however, was how excited a lot of our farmers have grown about the program. Even though results were not yet as they had hoped, they are eager to try again, asking for different seeds, more training so they know how to better deal with different pests naturally next time.

Getting Ready for the Next Season

Maybe it’s because many of them still remember how their grandparents used to grow cotton, how it used to be an important part of their culture. For offerings, to make bracelets for newborns - or simply stuff your own pillow.

Maybe it’s because they know that when you’re working with nature, the result is not always up to you. It takes patience, it takes time and all we can do is control our own actions, learn about what is and isn’t working, try to do better next time.

Pak Adam is one of our Papa Kapas in Sumbawa. Despite the challenges, he and his wife are excited to try again next year. They both still have vivid memories of a time when cotton was grown everywhere.

Returning Tumpang Sari cotton to Eastern Indonesia will be a long journey, a difficult one. Yet we also know the importance of the project for our communities and their land. The need for additional income. So we continue failing forward.

And I’m grateful we don’t have to go it alone. Thank you to all of you, who have supported and keep supporting this important project.

We couldn’t do it without you.

In another village just two hours away, the cotton fared really well and grew over 1.8m tall. Analyzing soil samples and comparing yields across different areas is an important way for us to determine best practices and do better during the next season.