The Preservation of Agricultural Land and Land Conversion

Case of Gianyar Regency, Indonesia and Fukagawa City, Japan

By: Barlianti Vavorita (8182569)

Introduction

Land conversion becomes a common phenomenon throughout the world. Land

conversion is usually defined as a process characterized by the transference of land from one
type of use to another. Mostly, the conversion is from agriculture land use to non-agriculture
use. The land use conversion is normally happen along with the development of some area.
This is become a problem when it occurs on the productive agricultural land. Agricultural
land, especially paddy fields, is a good medium for rice to grow. More than 90% of the
world’s rice is produced and consumed in Asia which have suitable climate for crop to grow.
Indonesia becomes the third largest country for rice production, under China and India.
In many OECD countries, the land conversion has been driving forced by several
conditions. The combination between the demand from the markets and the policies has
influence the land use change. The population growth, the level of people’s income and
transportation costs are the most prominent role for the patterns of the land use change. While
from the policies views, the social support for the farmer, environmental issues and the
disposition for maintaining the urban environment are the main problems (OECD, 2009). The
developing countries such as Indonesia, also experience the massive number of land
conversion, especially from the agriculture to non-agriculture. The urban population also has
contribution to this situation (Azadi et al, 2011). Furthermore, he argued that the economic
growth and the transition of their economic structure is the reason for the change of the land
use.
Each country has its own policy and program to deal with this situation including
OECD countries. Australia has The Environmental Stewardship Programme. This
programme has 15 years engagement with the selected farmers and private land managers.
They will be paid to do agreed actions that contributed to the long term protection,
rehabilitation and improvement on the environment of the private land. Another example is
Flanders Agricultural diversification in Belgium. The concern of this policy is land
consolidation and land conversion. Also The Canada has Greenbelt Plan in Ontario (OECD,
2009). This policy addressing the environmental protection issues, urban sprawl and
agricultural land preservation. Those countries have demonstrated different ways to
agricultural preservation. Indonesia also has different programme to maintain the agricultural
land. This paper will discuss the comparative study of agricultural preservation between
Gianyar Regency in Indonesia and Fukagawa City in Japan. Those cities have different
approach to preserve the farmland, but still the goal is to achieve the agricultural land
preservation. Furthermore, the policies implementation and government intervention is
needed to preserve the agricultural lands (Azadi et al, 2011).
Gianyar Regency, Indonesia

Gianyar regency is one of nine regencies/municipality in Bali Province which is

geographically located at position 80180 520 South Latitude, 1150 050 290 dan 1150 220 230
East Longitude. This area is quite strategic because it is located among 4 regencies which are
the Capital of Bali Province Denpasar and Badung Regency in West, Klungkung and Bangli
Regencies in East and Bangli Regency in North. Gianyar regency has an area of 368.00 km2
(6.52% of the total area of Bali). Its population is 499,600 (12,1% of the total population of
Bali). Gianyar Regency consists of seven sub-districts.
Total Population in Gianyar Regency in 2008 is 438.974 people with Population
density 1,193 people/km2. The population always increasing every year, and by 2016,
population of Gianyar Regency reaches 499.600 people, consisting of 252.200 male and
247.400 female. The highest density population is in Sukawati Sub-district (2.198
people/km2), while the lowest population density is in Ubud Sub-district (562 people/km2).
Gianyar density is not located in the center of the city but out of the central city which is a
tourist area, especially in the district of Ubud (BPS, 2017).
Gianyar is called the city of art where many people work in the craft industry, which
is the main industry, followed by the tourism sector. The livelihood of Gianyar people is in
the field of Agriculture and Arts either in the form of sculpture, carving, or painting.
Although Gianyar is small, this regency is known as the second largest producer of rice in
Bali after Tabanan Regency.
Compared to other regencies, Gianyar has neither a lake nor a volcano, some parts of
the land are rather high but are more hilly land. Overall land use in 2016 is as follows: 29.946
ha of agricultural land, consisting of 14.376 ha of wetland which is paddy field and 15.570 ha
of other type of agricultural land. While the rest, 6.485 ha, is non agricultural land. The
wetland is decreasing and counted for 14.575 ha in 2014 and 14.420 ha in 2015 (BPS, 2017).

14600
505000
14500 500000
495000
14400 490000
485000
14300 480000
475000
14200
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
2014 2015 2016

Number of agricultural land Number of population

Source BPS, 2017

The increasingly land conversion from agriculture to non-agriculture could threaten

the existence of paddy field result in food security endanger. Therefore, government took the
initiative to issue regulations to protect the land that produce food. Law No. 41 year 2009
about the protection of sustainability food agricultural land/Perlindungan Lahan Pertanian
Pangan Berkelanjutan (PLP2B) has issued by the central government to protect and sustain
the agricultural land. The regulation has several purposes as outlined in article 2, which are:
1. Protecting the area and agricultural land on a sustainable way;
 2. Ensure the availability of sustainable agriculture land
3. Actualizing food self-reliance, food security and food sovereignty;
4. Protecting the ownership of agricultural land belonging to farmers;
5. Increase the prosperity and welfare of farmers and communities;
6. Improve farmer’s protection and empowerment;
7. Improve the provision of job opportunity;
8. Maintain an ecological balance; and
9. Actualizing the revitalization of agriculture
Law no 41 of 2009 then became the basis of government regulation about spatial
planning policy in all regions in Indonesia. Bali Province has adapted this regulation into
Provincial Regulation No. 16 year 2009 about Bali Provincial Spatial Planning Program Year
2009-2029/Rencana Tata Ruang Wilayah Provinsi Bali Tahun 2009-2029. The provincial
spatial plan is a guideline for spatial planning of the regency/city. Furthermore in the
Regency level, Gianyar has adapted the policy which is local government regulation No. 16
year 2012 about Spatial Planning of Gianyar Regency 2012-2032.

Fukagawa City, Japan

Fukagawa city is located in Hokkaido, Japan. It is located in Ishikari Plain and

roughly equal distance in between Asahikawa to the northeast and Takikawa to the southwest.
In 2016, the estimated population of this city is 21,618 with 41/km 2 population density. This
city has total area of 529,12 km2, half of Tokyo Total area. Fukagawa was settled by the
colonist militia (tondenhei) between 1895 – 1896 (Wikipedia, 2018). The city is well known
for its plentiful rice fields.
The population of Fukagawa city has been declining continuously. In 1975, the
population has been counted for 36,576 dropped by 21,500 in 2017. The farming population
also decrease from 3531 in 2000 become 1611 in 2015. This means that a lot of farmer has
been retired due to ageing also due to the migration of the younger generations out of the city.
The depopulation also rise issue about the vacant house. Many houses have been abandoned
in this city, especially by the former colonial resident. In Meiji Era, this city has been
colonized by many colonizers. The colonizer built the accommodation in the middle of the
rice field. The reason is that the house near to the farm land (Uemura, 2017).

Figure 1. Colonizers residential pattern

Source: Yamamoto (2012)

The house position made the agricultural land not efficient when it cultivated in large
scale, for example using machinery. Therefore not anyone wants to living in that abandoned
house. The abandoned house was not recommended to be demolished due to the cost issue.
Also according to regulation of new rice field development issued by vice-minister of MAFF
in 1969, the farmer was prohibited to increase the area of the rice field freely. Then the
central government gives special grant to the city of Fukagawa. Furthermore the local
government committee uses the grant to demolish the colonial houses to become the farmland.

Figure 2. Before and after the demolishing

Source: Yamamoto (2012)

After 2010, the city of Fukagawa subsidized the cost of land conversion including
survey, soil work and re-registration. As a result, every year Fukagawa city receives more
than 10 applications to demolish the house (Uemora, 2017).

Discussion

In Gianyar Regency, the agricultural land conversion mostly triggered by the increase
growth of population. The massive number of population increases the demand of houses and
industry which lead to the higher demand of land. This situation aggravated by the provincial
regulation ‘perda’ 16/2009 and regional regulation established in 1971. The regulation stated
that buildings in Bali may not be built more than 15 meters/more than coconut trees. In
consequence, the building tend to be horizontally developed rather than vertically. The spatial
planning policy has been implemented to control the massive trend of land conversion in
Gianyar Regency. This policy divided the regency into several zone, one of them is farm land
zones. This mechanism aims to create a more rational territorial organization of land uses and
the linkages between them, to balance demands for development with the need to protect the
environment, and to achieve social and economic objectives (Nadin, 2006).
On the contrary, depopulation occurred in Fukagawa city. The decrease number of
population results in the increase number of vacant houses. The problem is that the vacant
houses are build in the middle of rice field. The people of city Fukagawa ignored to inherit
the houses because of its inefficiency. The local government attempt to overcome this
problem with a different way. Commonly, rice field creations are come from the existing
abandoned rice farm or vacant land, because it can minimizing the cost to build the
supporting infrastructure such as irrigation channel. The government of Fukagawa city did
rarely initiative to convert the residential land use to the farm land. By the budget from the
central government, the programmes successfully conducted in Fukagawa.
 Two cases between Gianyar and Fukagawa are different. Government of Gianyar tried
to preserve the existing paddy filed against the massive trends of agricultural land conversion
to another use. Since that area experience increasing growth of tourism, this sector also
becomes one factor which possibility has contribution to the decreasing number of
agricultural land. Because many of agricultural land has been converted into tourist
accommodation. The policy has been set to overcome this situation to continue to occur. The
incentive and disincentive mechanism has been proposed to support the farmer cultivated
their land. New programmes also has been planned to have 5 years engagement between
farmer and the government to not convert their land. Local government also tried to take the
possibility to make vacant land and derelict land to be converted into productive paddy field.
While Fukagawa, the government tried to make farm land from the abandoned houses.
This case possibility has never happened in Indonesia. Beside of its difficulties, the
population in Indonesia tends to increase every year. But, by the case from Fukagawa city, it
can be learn that it is possible to create farm land from the residential land.

Conclusion and Recommendation

The land conversion trends are different between Gianyar Regency and Fukagawa
City. Gianyar agricultural land is threatened by the increase number of building. In contrary,
Fukagawa city tried to demolish the building due to lack of population and want to make it
into the farm land. The land conversion in Gianyar Regency is mostly from the agricultural
land into another purpose. While in Fukagawa, land conversion occur from the residential
building become agricultural land. The government in each region tried different programmes
to preserve the farm land. Policy enforcement and government intervention is needed to
overcome the issues in each county. The appropriate and the intention from the government
also the collaboration with the farmer/landowner can make the policy implemented
successfully.
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