Lombok

Lombok Fieldwork Progress - April 2024

Dr Miya Irawati

During our research fieldwork in Lombok, we conducted focus group discussions and interviews for women, older individuals, and people with disabilities in Pringgabaya and Apit Aik villages. These areas have a high population density and extreme poverty. Our research aims to understand how these vulnerable groups are affected by climate change and their
resilient strategies.

The research sites are situated in low-lying areas with rainfed rice field, farmland, and coastal areas. The residents heavily rely on agriculture and fishing for their livelihoods. Farm laborers, the majority of occupation, earn low wages (AUD 5-8 per day) and periods of unemployment during specific planting seasons, resulting in food insecurity for their families.

Many of them experience hunger, which creates tension within families, as husbands express their anxieties about poverty to their disabled wives through domestic violences. Crop cultivation is greatly influenced by the monsoon and dry seasons. Rice is grown during the monsoon season, while other crops like corn, tomatoes, chili peppers, and tobacco are cultivated during the dry season. However, climate change has disrupted these patterns, leading to shifts in rainfall patterns and prolonged dry seasons. This has resulted in a reliance on water distributors and difficulties with drought, causing low productivity in rice fields.

The communities view these challenges as part of nature and God will, displaying a fatalistic perspective. The communities’ aspirations on their needs include financial support, health insurance, and programs for income generation. They struggle multiple times to find a way out for their livelihoods, let alone consider climate resilience strategy. They have been trapped in debt.

Even while laughing at themselves, they use the term 'no day goes by without debt.' This debt must be repaid weekly for a year, with total interest ranging from 30-40% of the loan amount. In this context, we encountered an inspiring elderly female peasant, let’s call her Inak (Mrs) Kartini, alone on a 400 sqm agricultural land. Despite living in extreme poverty, she exhibits incredible self-reliance and resilience by tirelessly tending to her agricultural land and saving money to purchase a water drilling machine. She digs a well to obtain water and manually carries it with a bucket because the water source is lower than her land. Inak Kartini makes me believe that there is still a good lesson learnt of climate resilience from Lombok, even without expecting assistance from anyone.