Government’s Efforts to Ensure the Sustainable Agricultural Lands: Case in the Traditional Irrigation System in Bali Province

Abstract

Land (rice field) conversion has increased over the year at the national and provincial levels. This might threaten the government's program for achieving food security. In order to cope with this situation, the central government of Indonesia has issued the Law 41/2009 about the sustainable food farmland protection. However, this could not be implemented yet in the provinces, including in Bali. Its impact is the increased rice field conversion and uncertainty of food security program and might influence the existence of subak as a traditional irrigation system in Bali. This study is aimed to describe the subak system in rice farming development, understand the perception of farmers toward the Law, and to describe the effort which should be done by the government to achieve the effectiveness of the Law. Location of study is in Denpasar city as the capital of Bali province. Data collected by using interview, observation, and documentation techniques. Descriptive method is fully employed in the data analysis. The results of the study pointed out that the Law could not be effective yet to ensure sustainable food farmland protection and land conversion in the province. Perception of farmers is moderate toward the Law due to the specific reason, such as the limited size of land ownership, the small value of production gained from the rice farming, and the high tax of land (rice field). Several considerable efforts should be made by a government in cope with the land conversion, such as supporting the efficient cost of production, giving subsidy for inputs and equipment relating to rice farming, supporting the availability of irrigation water, making the higher price of rice, and others.