Ethnoastronomy-The Baduy agricultural calendar and prediction of environmental perturbations

Abstract

In the past, the village farmers of Java and other islands owned extensive the traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) on climate or pranata mangsa. It had culturally practiced as guidance to various agricultural activities, such as planting rice which is considered and fixed with dynamic climate conditions. Nowadays, however, the pranata mangsa has eroded and neglected by the majority irrigated rice (sawah) farmers. Unlike the sawah farmers, the Baduy people have culturally maintained the pranata mangsa (called by Baduy as pananggalan) for annual practicing the swidden farming (ngahuma). This paper discusses the way in which cultural practices of Baduy swidden farming based on traditional calendar. Method used in this study qualitative which is based on ethnoecology or ethnoastronomy approach. The result of study shows that the Baduy rice farming cycle is fixed annually with reference to an agricultural calendar. It has slightly affected by the various environmental perturbations, because the Baduy people have developed some strategies, such as by organizing the traditional calendar and applying the traditional agroforestry that productions can be used for both subsistence and commercial purposes.

Site selection and soil fertility management by the Outer Baduy People (Banten, Indonesia) in maintaining swidden cultivation productivity

“…There are 7 phases of the swidden farming activities, namely (i) selecting the site (neangan pihumaeun), (ii) preparing the land (ngagawean pihumaeun) including cutting underbrush (nyacar), felling trees (nuar) and pruning brunches of trees (nutuh), drying debris (ngaganggang), burning debris (ngahuru), reburning debris (ngaduruk) and weeding under piles of debris (nyasap), (iii) planting (ngaseuk), (iv) taking care of the rice and other annual plants (ngarawat huma), particularly first weeding (ngored munggaran), second weeding and providing medicinal rice (ngubaran pare), (v) harvesting rice (dibuat or panen), (vi) storing (ngaleuitkeun) and consuming rice (nganyaran), and (vii) leaving the land fallow (ngareumakeun). Traditionally, each phase of those activities must follow the Baduy calendar that is mainly arranged by informal leader (Puun) and his staff (Iskandar 1998;Iskandar and Iskandar 2016b).…”

“…Berkes 1999;Carlson and Maffi 2004). Each stage of the swidden farming system, namely selecting sites, preparing land (cutting underbrush, felling and pruning trees, drying debris, burning and reburning debris), planting rice, managing prepared swidden fields (weeding and providing medicinal rice), harvesting rice, storing and consuming rice, and leaving the land fallow must be done following the traditional Baduy calendar (Iskandar and Iskandar 2016b). In traditional management of swidden farming, hoeing of land (soil tillage), modern rice seeds, chemical fertilizer, and synthetic pesticide are prohibited (taboo).…”

Impact of the green revolution on the gender’s role in wet rice farming: A case study in Karangwangi Village, Cianjur District, West Java, Indonesia

“…The dryland has been widely used for practice gardens and swidden (huma) farming. The garden may be divided into two types, namely it has been mostly annual crops which is called garden (kebun), and has been planted by dominant perennial crops, including fruits and woods which is called mixed garden or kebon tatangkalan or talun (the Sundanese last time term) (Iskandar and Iskandar 2011;Iskandar et al 2016;Iskandar and Iskandar 2016a).…”

The diameter increment of selected tree species in a secondary tropical forest in Sarawak, Malaysia

“…For example, unlike Baduy community (Iskandar and Iskandar 2016c), the traditional agricultural calendar that is based on the star constellation and flowering and fruiting times of certain perennial plants has rarely applied. The planting time is mainly determined by the rain season time.…”