Amarudin (47) proudly shows his long beans which is planted along the embankments of his rice field, part of the Regional Rice Program in Indonesia

FAO’s Regional Rice Initiative (RRI) offers new practices for sustainable production.  Amarudin (47) sits on the embankment, looking across the rice paddy in front of him. He smiles proudly, pointing to a rice field in the valley. “That field is mine,” he says. 

After 15 years of saving money as a hard working farm labourer, Amarudin managed to buy his own rice field at Ngagot, Pasuruan. At first, he grew rice in the traditional way like most of the other farmers. He used pesticides, which were expensive.
One day a neighbouring farmer introduced Amarudin to the FAO’s practices of “Save and Grow.” The neighbour was head of a local farmer group and had a field next to his.

“He had a different way of planting rice. He used organic fertilizers and he grew fish in the flooded paddy. He also planted vegetables along the embankments,” Amarudin said. “At first, I doubted the techniques, so I just observed for a while.”

At first, as they were entirely new to him, Amarudin simply observed his neighbour’s activities but paid close attention to the practices. When the harvest came in he realized the Save and Grow approach was working well. “I saw that the results were promising and, together with other friends in the group, we started to apply the techniques in our own fields.”

Since applying FAO’s Save and Grow techniques, Amarudin has increased his income by 30 percent. He’s also reduced costs by using fewer inputs, and spends less money each day to feed his family.

“Before Save and Grow, we used around 100 kg of chemical fertilizers in our rice fields each season. Now we only apply organic fertilizers and that’s resulted in a 40 percent reduction in costs,” he explained. Amarudin is now harvesting 1.2 tons of rice three times in a year.

And the fish? The flooded paddy produces around 5 kg of fish per month while the vegetables growing on the embankments provide enough for his family to eat each day and even some additional to sell. In summary, Amarudin’s family is now wealthier and healthier.

Save and Grow: A sustainable integrated farming system for greater livelihoods and improved nutrition

FAO’s Save and Grow comprises a farming system that offers a range of productivity, socio-economic and environmental benefits to producers and to society at large.

In line with its strategic focus on increasing land productivity and efficient use of natural resources, FAO’s Regional Rice Initiative in the Asia-Pacific region aimed at encouraging farmers to adopt farming practices that are innovative and sustainable, under the “Save and Grow” banner.

In Indonesia, these new practices were introduced in the districts of Indramayu, Ciamis, Boyolali and Pasuruan. Lao PDR and the Philippines also participated in the Regional Rice Initiative, with similar success stories.

To improve uptake, the RRI in Indonesia relied on a group-based learning process called Farmer Field Schools (FFS), in which farmers would discuss and learn new hands-on agricultural practices with the support of facilitators from government and NGOs. The Indonesians named their group “Setia Kawan” (Loyal Friend).

Within the group, the farmers considered all aspects from seedling nurseries, to planting periods and maintenance, right through to harvest. They also learned about the concept of cultivating healthy crops while maintaining an agro-ecosystem balance in the paddies.

Muhammad Jami, a government extension worker, has been supporting the FFS approach since 2015.
“We selected a paddy field as a test plot. Then, the farmers tried planting rice in wide rows (“jajar legowo”). As a group, they learned about making their own organic fertilizer, cultivating fish in the paddy, and growing vegetables between the paddies,” he said.

The positive and negative factors in the agro-ecosystem were observed, analyzed and discussed in the group, including issues like the availability of water, agronomics, the threat of pests, weeds, natural enemies and weather.

A Regional Rice Initiative with great results

Initially, some farmers had been skeptical, even calling it foolish, to change their traditional approaches to growing rice. But the Save and Grow farming system has produced great results.

“The challenge is to change the mindset of farmers who have previously underestimated the value of these techniques. They laughed at me, for example, when we applied the jajar legowo system,” said Rifai. The laughter has since subsided.

“I tried making liquid organic fertilizer and botanical pesticides as suggested by the trainers. I applied them in my own rice field, and they worked. Since then, the other farmers have started to copy me,” said Rifai with a smile on his face.

What began as a 0.2 ha test plot run by the “Setia Kawan” farmer group of Save and Grow has since expanded to 4,000 ha.

“We want to do even more,” said Rifai. “We are trying to better manage these fields to also create a beautiful landscape. I’ve heard that, in other places (with Save and Grow), tourists come to see the rice and fish. We would love that to happen here too.”

FAO’s Regional Rice Initiative has brought good practices to farmers, taught them new techniques and skills, and brought tangible, nutritious benefits to farming families. These approaches are now being adopted on a broad scale by the Government of Indonesia to make land management sustainable, reduce the use of chemicals, conserve natural resources, and improve farmers’ livelihoods.