How you grow food in Indonesia through American eyes
After a long time not updating this page, now I wanna share a new experience of my friend, Colin Tomkins-Bergh from the USA about his curiosity to how Indonesians grow their food especially in western Indonesia, more especially in Bandung, West Java. So here is the story:
Over the past three weeks I have stumbled into a number of agricultural fields in Indonesa. This has happened because 1) their fields are gorgeous and 2) I’m interested in how crops grow in different countries.
The fields surrounding Bandung are purely beautiful. Most of them are nestled away on the hillsides that surround the city. Almost all of the fields are terraced giving the scenery a neatly designed pattern.
I haven’t taken any tours of the fields, but my group did explore the fields for a few hours one day for some trekking. All of the thoughts below are from observations and limited research on agriculture in Indonesia.
Observations on Agriculture:
What you can see along way from Jakarta to Bandung
Rice grows EVERYWHERE. From the first train I took from Jakarta to Bandung rice paddies lined both sides of the track everywhere there wasn’t a city. Indonesia is actually the third larges rice producer in the world, which considering the small amount of land mass is quite impressive. I’ve heard that they can grow 3-4 crops of rice a year because of the tropical climate. Also, any free space within cities is taken up by rice paddies. Multiple times there has been a rice paddy surrounded by buildings and streets on all for sides (picture below).
Rice paddy in the town
Crops grow in bags: I’ve seen this be very popular in the hills around Bandung from crops like Strawberries to green onions. I believe that it’s purpose is to improve the soil quality by using different soil and adding fertilizer. Either way it looks really cool!
How many people we can provide with all these paddies?
Tea Plantations! Some of the most beautiful fields that I’ve seen. These pictures are all located in southern Bandung. We got to talk with some of the workers who a surprising number of them were from Saudi Arabia. They would come to Indonesia, work, then bring the tea bag to Saudi Arabia to sell.
Gorgeous rolling hills of the tea plantations
This cool article is written by Colin Tomkins-Bergh in his blog, colintomkinsbergh.wordpress.com
Check his blog, it is so awesome :)
Photos: Colin Tomkins-Bergh, Dio Sundoro
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