Gambaran Ringkas tentang keluarga Westenberg
Ditulis oleh Juara R. Ginting
Pada tahun 1904, Belanda
mencaplok 'Simalungun en Karolanden' sebagai bagian 'De Resident van Ooskust
van Sumatra' (Provinsi Pantai Timur Sumatra) yang beribukota di Medan.
'Simalungun en Karolanden' dipimpin oleh seorang controleur dengan ibu kota
Seribu Dolok. Sebelumnya, daerah Simalungun dan Karo ini disebut dalam
laporan-laporan Belanda dengan istilah Zelfstandige Bataklanden (Batak Berdiri
Sendiri/Batak Merdeka) karena dianggap bagian wilayah Bataklanden tapi tidak
termasuk 'De Resident van Bataklanden' atau nanti bernama De Resident van
Tapanoeli.
Yang dikatakan 'Simalungun en
Karolanden' sebenarnya terbatas pada Simalungun Atas dan Karo Gugung.
Simalungun Bawah dan Karo Jahe telah duluan menjadi bagian 'De Resident van
Ooskust van Sumatra'. Sebagian Simalungun Bawah dianggap bagian dari Sultan
Asahan dan sebagian lainnya bagian Sultan Serdang. Sebagian Karo Jahe dianggap
bagian Sultan Langkat dan sebagian lainnya bagian Sultan Deli dan Sultan
Serdang.
Pencaplokan Simalungun Atas dan
Karo Gugung berkaitan erat dengan perlawanan Datuk Sunggal terhadap
perusahaan perkebunan asing di daerah Karo Jahe yang mendapat dukungan dari
pemuda-pemuda Karo Gugung. Pada tahun 1902, Datuk Sunggal tertangkap di hutan
Nang Belawan (tetangga kampung Lingga). Lingga pecah dua. Satu memihak Belanda
dan menunjukan kepada Belanda tempat persembunyian Datuk Sunggal. Satu lainnya
marah. Mereka membakar rumah-rumah mereka (rumah adat) dan mengungsi
meninggalkan Lingga.
Sebelum pencaplokan Simalungun en
Karolanden, ada lembaga yang disebut Urusan Batak Merdeka yang dipimpim oleh
C.J. Westenberg. Ketika Simalungun en Karolanden dicaplok, Westenberg ini
diangkat menjadi controleur Simalungun en Karolanden. Dia beristerikan Si Negel
br Sinulingga, putri dari Sibayak Gunung Merlawan (Urung Serbanaman Sunggal).
Nantinya, Simalungunlanden dan
Karolanden dijadikan di bawah pemerintahan 2 controleur. Controleur van
Simalungunlanden berkedudukan di Seribu Dolok, dan controlur van Karolanden di
Kaban Jahe. C.J. Westenberg menentang pemekaran ini karena, menurutnya, Karo
dan Simalungun secara tradisional tak mungkin dipisahkan. Menarik juga
argumennya dan sangat antropologis. Bila Simalungun dipisah dari Karo, di mana
lagi taneh kalak Tarigan (?), katanya. Juhar? Itu memang kerajaan Tarigan
(Sibero), tapi Taneh Juhar adalah Taneh Kalak Ginting Munte, katanya. Kalo tak
punya taneh panteken, tak sah menjadi bagian society (Karo). Memisahkan tanah
dari kedua suku ini berarti menghancurkan society mereka (society harap dibaca
bukan kumpulan manusia tapi sebuah sistim yang mengatur hubungan antara
manusia). Ambtenaar yang sangat antropologis, begitulah kesan-kesanku ketika
minggu lalu membaca surat-surat pribadinya di rumah cucunya di Den Haag.
Westenberg tak terbentuk. Dia
terus mengkritik pemerintahnya. Akhirnya, dia dipromosikan menjadi resident
(baca: gubernur) Tapanuli. Selama jadi gubernur dia sering berkunjung bersama
istri dan anak-anaknya ke Tongging (dia bermerga Ginting Munte Tengging), Dokan
(panteken Ginting Munte Ajinembah) dan Kabanjahe. Karena itu, orang-orang Karo
menyebutnya Tuan Siboga. Belum setahun dia menjadi gubernur, seperti Multatuli
yang juga tak tahan atas perlakuan pemerintahnya, Westenberg mengundurkan diri
dan kembali ke Den Haag membawa anak-anak dan istrinya si Negel.
Tak sampai 20 tahun kemudian, dia
meninggal dunia dalam usia sekitar 50 tahun. Si Negel pulang ke Kabanjahe
bersama seorag putranya Hans Westenberg yang nanti mendapatkan penghargaan
Magsasay (hadiah nobel tingkat Asia) atas jasa-jasanya di bidang pertanian/
pengadaan pangan.
(Honoring
greatness of spirit and transformative leadership in Asia)
Westenberg, Hans | BIOGRAPHY
HANS WESTENBERG was born on
October 27, 1898 in the village of Bangoen Poerba, about 30 kilometers from
Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia, which was then known as the Netherlands East
Indies. His father Carel Johan Westenberg, was a Controller in the Netherlands
civil service who had been posted to Sumatra in 1892 to bring the Batak tribes
under Dutch administration. His mother, Negel Sinulingga, was the daughter of
the Sibayak of Lingga, the primary rajah of the Karo Bataks of the high lands.
She contributed to her husband's career by helping persuade the Batak
hereditary chiefs to accept Dutch rule. When her husband was decorated by the
Netherlands government for this work, she was presented to Queen Wilhelmina,
the first Indonesian lady so honored.
HANS was the youngest of four,
two boys and two girls. When he was five his father was promoted to Assistant
Resident at Seribou Dolok near Lake Toba in the North Sumatra Karo Highlands.
Here HANS had a Dutch tutor who also taught his mother in the Dutch language
Two years later, at age seven, he was sent to Holland to live with relatives of
his father and attend the Deventer primary school.
His father rose to the rank of
Resident with his appointment as Head (Governor) of the Bataklanden in Sibolga,
Sumatra but, not agreeing with the Dutch administration, was pensioned early
and returned to Holland. He established his family at The Hague where HANS
joined them to attend secondary school. After graduation he entered the
University of Leyden where for two years he studied for the civil service
taking courses in agricultural economics, community development, health, the
Indonesian language, and law. His father died while he was at the university
and HANS decided to forego further studies and return to Indonesia. He celebrated
his 21st birthday aboard ship.
His father's brother, who was
general manager of the two largest Dutch rubber and coffee companies, arranged
a job for him on his arrival. Because his brother was already with Rubber
Cultuur Maatschappy Amsterdam, HANS asked for another company and was assigned
to Rubber Cultuur Maatschappy Serbadjadi. In November 1919, as an assistant
manager at this company's estate Serbadjadi, some 50 kilometers from Medan,
HANS WESTENBERG started his agricultural career.
After one year he was moved to a
new estate, Sungei Kopas, which was being opened by his company in a more
remote area 180 kilometers from Medan. Here he was confronted with 1,000
hectares of jungle to be converted into a rubber plantation. WESTENBERG became
manager of this estate in his sixth year with the company?a record, for at that
time 10 to 20 years of experience were usually required for the senior
position. WESTENBERG credits his quick promotion to lessons taught him in his
youth: "don't strive for money; do your job well and you will always have
the money you need," and "be honest." Being honest he admitted
that he had inherited "quite a lot of money" from his father and
corrected mistakes he made through inexperience by paying for them
"secretly" out of his own pocket.
During his 13 years at Sungei
Kopas he was given six months home leave every five or six years. In 1928, on
his second leave, he met and married Johanna Westhoff, whose father was a Dutch
army colonel and a friend of his uncle. The following year a son, Johan, was
born to the couple at Sungei Kopas.
WESTENBERG was next transferred
to manage two estates?Hanna, 220 kilometers from Medan, and Milano, 70
kilometers from Hanna. His marriage was dissolved in 1941, just before the
Japanese occupation of Indonesia, and his wife and son, then 12 years old, were
interned as Dutch citizens. He himself was interned only in the last five
months of the war because the Japanese chose to regard him as an Indonesian?and
they needed experienced plantation managers.
Since the Japanese had little use
for the large stocks of rubber on the estates, they instructed managers to stop
tapping for rubber and plant food crops instead. As a result, during his three
years under the Japanese, WESTENBERG reamed to become a food crop farmer and
succeeded so well that this was to be a major interest from then on.
With 800 hectares of
land?obtained by felling old rubber trees and clearing new WESTENBERG raised
more than enough food for 3,500 persons. Besides feeding his own laborers and
their families, he sent food to estates unable to feed their labor forces and
contributed 50 kilos of vegetables daily to the estates' hospital.
During the years of occupation he
also learned to be very resourceful. Without fertilizers and chemicals for
plant protection one of his severest problems was how to exterminate rats. He
found a solution after noting that his boxer had mated with a stray bitch that
fed herself and her litter by catching rodents. He eventually rounded up 14 of
these mongrels which were taken to the rice fields each morning; in about three
hours they completed their daily task of killing 500 rats.
To provide meat and fish on Hanna
was easy according to WESTENBERG. He hunted wild pigs with dogs and spear, and
did this alone: "although not dangerous at all, no one wished to accompany
me," he has written. However fishing in the ditches and marshes, where big
snakefish were plentiful, was dangerous because of the possibility of
contracting black water fever, which WESTENBERG did. Without doctor or medicine
he became so weak and paralyzed that he could not lift his hand; sipping milk
through a rice straw saved him and after one month the fever subsided.
There were other wartime hazards.
On one occasion WESTENBERG was imprisoned with 1,000 other men on the suspicion
of taking part in subversive actions. His group of 60 prisoners was crowded
into a cell built for 10. Many prisoners died and he lost 14 kilograms in
weight in the 35 days before the Japanese estates staff intervened and secured
his release.
Illness and incarceration
notwithstanding, he remembers those three years as the happiest of his life:
"I could enjoy my hobby of growing successfully all kinds of crops and be
able to feed thousands of people," he says.
WESTENBERG was interned April
through August 1945 and released with other internees when the Japanese forces
surrendered. He stayed in Medan until the end of 1945 because of the Indonesian
rebellion against the return of Dutch rule. While there he met and married Phie
Gweh Eng?daughter of a Chinese contractor and his Javanese wife?by whom he had
a second son, Vincent, in 1946.
In the early aftermath of war
WESTENBERG was asked by Rubber Cultuur Maatschappy Amsterdam to help them get
their rubber estates near Medan back into production. He talked to the laborers
who had refused to work now that the Dutch government was again in power,
identified and detained those fomenting the strike, and in three days persuaded
the entire work force to report for duty.
Given the task of getting the
estates of his own company into production WESTENBERG began with Serbadjadi,
the estate nearest Medan where he had begun as assistant manager. After an army
detail used weapons carriers to pull felled rubber trees aside and clear the
road, he had the burned-out manager's house and factory repaired and a new
smokehouse built. Production could be started after one month although the
bridge giving access to the estate was often burned at night by Indonesian
revolutionaries.
WESTENBERG proceeded next to the
Silau Dunia estate where only an empty cattle barn with two small rooms was
intact. Living there with armed civilian estate guards, drivers and other
personnel, he quickly built a sawmill and started constructing new houses. The
rubber trees were in good condition and he began tapping immediately,
processing the latex on a neighboring estate until the factory and smokehouse
were rebuilt.
Facing the problem of reaching
estates 200 kilometers to the south?a region still controlled by
revolutionaries offered to guide a Dutch army troop making a surprise sortie to
the area. Without asking permission he had his armed civil estate guards follow
the convoy. Sitting on the outside of the lead tank he guided the military vehicles
to their destination without incident and was able to borrow an army truck to
move his guards to Ambalutu and Sungei Kopas estates. On a second such trip his
plan failed; the officer in charge refused him transport and disarmed his
guards. As a result, when he finally got to Hanna with other armed guards a
month later, he found his house burned to the ground and all his possessions
gone.
After completing his job as
liberator and troubleshooter for his company's estates, WESTENBERG settled down
as manager of Silau Dunia, their largest and most severely damaged plantation..
In 1949 the Dutch government was
forced by events to withdraw from Indonesia and in 1950 WESTENBERG took
Indonesian citizenship and bought Kebun Djeruk (Orange Plantation), a neglected
fruit farm located 92 kilometers southeast of Medan near Tebing Tinggi (Deli).
He intended to "retire" there the following year to work out a scheme
that had been germinating in his mind as he observed the economically
depressing effect on small farmers of their poor farming methods and their
inferior planting material. As he later wrote, "Indonesia is an agrarian
country, with the vase majority of the people employed in peasant farming on
plots of 0.5 to 2 hectares. Although these tiny farms produce 95 percent of all
agricultural output most research work, credit facilities and other
agricultural inputs have been directed to the large modern estates, which
account for a mere 5 percent." Where government assistance was available
to small farmers it was concentrated in the irrigated rice-production areas.
WESTENBERG concern was for the farmer on non-irrigated (rain-fed) land whose
position was desperate.
WESTENBERG had already moved his
family to Kebun Djeruk in 1951 when his company asked him to defer retirement
in order to save again as a troubleshooter in labor negotiations and as a
contact representative with the Indonesian government. The company general
manager in Medan gave him "full power to make decisions."
By working with labor leaders,
some of whom he knew personally and by giving the workers short-term profits
for long-term contracts and small gifts for weddings, funerals, births and
other important family occasions, he soon settled the major labor problems.
After a year of this work, and with no possibility of succeeding as general
manager because the Dutch company did not want an Indonesian in control,
WESTENBERG retired from Rubber Cultuur Maatschappy Sabadjadi with a pension of
400 guilders (US$105) per month, a jeep and other equipment for his new
venture.
However his plans to develop
Kebun Djeruk were soon curtailed. In 1953 he was asked by his former company to
come back to resolve serious problems that had arisen at their Simpang Kanan
estate in Atche By dealing evenhandedly with those workers who were stealing
half the rubber, the insurgents who claimed to be the legal authority and
demanded taxes and the Indonesian government officials he had the estate
profitable again in six months. Instead of returning to Kebun Djeruk he
accepted, in 1954 the position of general manager of Rubber Cultuur Maatschappy
Kwaloe?a Dutch company owned privately by the directors of Rubber Cultuur
Maatschappy Amsterdam who wanted an Indonesian to run their one large estate,
Labuhan Hadji He was the third general manager of this company, succeeding his
uncle and his brother. His condition in accepting the position was that he
would be allowed to experiment with intercropping, i.e. planting food crops
between the young rubber trees during the first three years before they cast
too much shade. His experiment was to have widely beneficial results.
"The system used at Labuhan
Hadji of intercropping annual crops between perennial crops during the two to
three years before shading prevents intercropping," WESTENBERG wrote,
"is expected to be able to pay for a part or the whole of the costs of
establishing perennial crops on an estate. It may revolutionize estate
agriculture in the future. For small dry land farmers whose yield per hectare
on perennial crops is often only one-tenth of the yield obtained on estates,
the system holds the solution for increasing their income by becoming
smallholders of high yielding perennial crops."
Besides successfully introducing
the concept of intercropping, WESTENBERG believes one of the most important
things he did while at Labuhan Hadji was to bring owners of idle land and
landless people together in a productive enterprise which was later organized
into a company with limited liability called Perusahaan Tani Labuhan Hadji. He
persuaded the owners of idle land to exchange it for shares in the company; the
landless paid for shares in cash. The venture started by developing nurseries
for rubber trees which were to be budded and sold and intercropping the
nurseries. Most of the expenses of the project were paid for by the sale of
trees alone. By 1972, on the 35 hectares then in production, the company was
making an annual gross profit from sales of trees and intercrops of five
million rupiahs (US$11,700) and paying Rp.1.5 million in taxes. Shares that
originally cost Rp.1 were selling for Rp.500. Many individual farmers are today
following the example of the company, and some 1,000 hectares in the region of
Labuhan Hadji are planted with high yielding budded rubber trees, intercropped
with food crops.
WESTENBERG stayed at Labuhan
Hadji until 1958 when the company was taken over by the Indonesian government.
He refused the position commensurate to his rank offered to him in Medan with
the new Indonesian company for he was eager to pursue his agricultural
experiments at Kebun Djeruk.
WESTENBERG had been the sole
purchaser in 1950 of the 30 hectares? later expanded to 50?that made up Kebun
Djeruk, and had made his wife his first partner by putting some shares in her
name. In 1951 his brother bought a one-fifth share which, upon his death in the
early 1960s, was taken over by WESTENBERG?s best friend, Professor Ir.
(Insenjur meaning engineer) Tan Hong Tong, an Indonesian of Chinese ancestry.
Tan, who was Director of the Research Institute of the Planters Association in
Medan?the largest research institute in Sumatra also Dean of the Faculty of
Agriculture of North Sumatra University, had close associations with national
and international research efforts and with the government extension service.
He brought another dimension to Kebun Djerok.
On the farm was a collection of
good and inferior budded orange and rambutan trees. To these WESTENBERG added
new plantings. The best were then selected, multiplied and sold to farmers. As
this work was developing a virus disease infected and killed most orange trees.
His rambutans can now be found throughout the region.
WESTENBERG took the orange
setback in stride for in 1951 he had announced to friends and to his neighbors
that Kebun Djerok was no longer to be only a fruit plantation but was to become
a mixed farming demonstration. He had long been convinced that the poverty of
small farmers was chiefly due to lack of access to seeds or planting material
of high yield potential, to fertilizers, pesticides and other requirements, and
to practical information and demonstration of improved systems of cultivation.
He planned to meet these needs at Kebun Djeruk, developing it as a private
experiment and extension station, and operating it from the beginning on a
commercial basis to prove to the small farmer that his methods were profitable.
The farm was registered in 1954
as the N.V. Perusahaan Perkembangan Pertanian (Organization for Farming
Development), with WESTENBERG as the managing director and principal
shareholder. A resident Indonesian manager was employed from 1951 until 1958
when WESTENBERG "retired" permanently to Kebun Djeruk. During this
seven years, excepting the six months in 1953 when he and his family were in
Atche, he spent most of his weekends there.
Aside from his initial investment
of Rp.55,000, the pay he took twice in lieu of leave while still working with
the rubber company, some gifts of equipment and subsidies for specific seed
production, all development, experiments and extension have been financed by
income generated by the farm. This has come primarily from the sale of produce,
planting material, seeds and rubber processed from the farm's own latex into
Standard No. 1 smoked sheet. Most profitable has been the production of budded
rubber trees, which WESTENBERG developed here as he had while at Labuhan Hadji
after studying research results of the Malayan Rubber Research Institute in
Kuala Lumpur. The company sells from 100,000 to 200,000 of these trees a year.
WESTENBERG first experiment with
food crops at Kebun Djeruk failed. Though he practiced proper land preparation,
fertilization and weeding he could not produce a high enough yield with
available varieties to meet rising wages and still realize a profit. He had
made a profit on intercropping at Labuhan Hadji, he realized, only because
monetary devaluation had worked in his favor. He therefore studied foreign
agricultural books and journals, and corresponded with seed houses and research
departments of governments and universities. Gradually he obtained?mostly from
abroad?seeds of good varieties of rice, peanuts, mungo beans, soya beans, sweet
corn, field corn and sorghum. He tested these seeds in both dry and rainy
seasons?in at least three plantings?to determine their suitability under local
soil and climatic conditions. Those suitable were then multiplied and made
available to others. Kebun Djeruk was the only farm in Indonesia, private or
public, engaged in seed multiplication for extension.
WESTENBERG had decided at the
outset not to give free planting materials. First, he knew that people usually
value more what they buy. Second, he needed to charge enough to provide a
nominal amount for farm development and future trials as well as to cover the
costs of production and the costs of the demonstration and the pamphlet that he
always gave with planting material purchases. His purpose in accompanying
purchases with demonstrations and pamphlets was to help the farmer avoid
mistakes which would both adversely affect his crop and undermine the
reputation of Kebun Djeruk: he wanted his customers to set examples which
others would seek to follow. Third, he wanted to prove that his methods were
commercially sound.
To prove the latter, WESTENBERG
made a point of showing his neighbors and visitors all activities on the farm,
emphasizing that Kebun Djeruk maintained itself from the sale of its own
produce as any viable farm must do. When farmers could see the land development,
capital improvements and experiments, all of which were being paid for out of
farm income, they began asking him for help and advice. He not only gave them
sound practical advice, but always offered them the opportunity?on the spot?to
buy the improved planting materials and/or seeds and production requisites.
In 1962 WESTENBERG introduced a
shrub, nilam patchuli, the leaves of which can be harvested in five to six
months and produce an oil to fix scent in perfume. A very simple method for
distilling the oil also was introduced. The crop has been highly profitable for
Kebun Djeruk. In years when demand was sated and prices dropped, the oil was
stocked?which improved its quality?and sold when the market recovered.
In recent years research emphasis
at Kebun Djerak has been on: 1) sorghum as a new export crop, 2) vegetable,
fish and animal proteins to improve the daily diet of the people, 3)
intercropping, 4) dwarf coconuts and 5) improved rice varieties.
WESTENBERG became interested in
sorghum as a new cash crop when he learned that its yield potential in tropical
countries is higher than that of any other grain, and that the newly developed
varieties with high protein quality and content considerably surpass corn as
food for animals. Sorghum matures in two and a half to three months?compared
with four months for corn?and under tropical conditions can produce two ratoon
crops from the stubble of the seeded crop. Also uniquely adaptable, sorghum is
one of the world's most drought resistant crops, yet survives under extremely
wet, even flood, conditions. Apprised that Japan and Taiwan import about three
million tons yearly, and that a ready market also exists in Malaysia,
Singapore, Hong Kong and Europe, he decided to obtain seed of the new varieties
to test at Kebun Djeruk.
Among the 500 new sorghum
varieties he tested, Purdue 954149, a non-hybrid high yielding variety from
Purdue University in the United States proved the most suitable to the soil and
climatic conditions of upland North Sumatra, yielding in 75 days, on fertile
soil with adequate rainfall, six tons per hectare. Based on this test-plot
yield WESTENBERG assumed that in large-scale planting four tons per hectare per
crop could be produced and four crops a year harvested, for a total of 12 tons
per hectare per year. Another variety?Purdue 954243?that matured in 83 days
proved better for the lowlands. Moved from test plots into the multiplication
fields, both fulfilled his expectations. Purdue 954243, now named KD-4, has
recently been released and an expanding demand has developed.
By testing vegetable seeds of
many varieties and from many countries, sent by friends and well-wishers or
ordered by him, WESTENBERG has found four high yielding varieties of
protein-rich vegetables suitable for North Sumatra: a black soya bean from
Queensland, Australia (Avoyelles); a yellow soya bean from the Institute
Partanian, Bogor, West Java (Bogor 495); a disease resistant peanut (groundnut)
from Taiwan (Tainan 9), and a non-shattering Super Mungo bean from the
Philippines that matures in 65 days. These soya beans and peanuts?with a high
protein and fat content?and mungo beans?with a high protein and vitamin
content?are now being grown widely in the area by small cultivators using seeds
purchased from Kebun Djeruk.
In 1969 WESTENBERG began research
on production of fish in ponds developed on six hectares of his farm. His
reasoning was that fish yield up to five times more meat per hectare than
cattle and are rich in proteins. The fastest growing pond fish in his trials
have been the three main Chinese carp (Cyprinus carpio) ?the grass, big head
and silver?which reach a weight of five to six kilograms in 18 months and have
a ready market in Medan restaurants. These Chinese carp do not spawn naturally
outside of mainland China but fingerlings have been readily available through
Singapore. He has also discovered that the common carp, ikan mas, grows twice
as fast when fed with cooked sorghum as under conventional pond culture; he has
been testing whether this growth rate can be further increased by using high
protein varieties of sorghum. The Community Aid Abroad (CAA) of Australia has
followed WESTENBERG?s experiments with keen interest and assisted with the
donation of an axial flow irrigation pump for the fishponds and rice fields and
a power tiller for preparing land for intercropping and for plowing fishponds
after they are drained for accretion of PH which requires liming.
Aware that thousands of hectares
of land in mature rubber, oil palm and coconut trees have a ground cover of
grasses and legumes of which virtually no use is made, has urged that animals
be allowed to graze these vase pastures. He is disappointed that neither large
nor small landholders have acted upon his suggestion to avail themselves of
this obvious opportunity for raising meat, for which there is a ready market.
WESTENBERG has taken his own
advice, however, and at Kebun Djeruk is experimenting with grazing Garut sheep
(imported from Bandung in Central Java) under perennial crops. He chose the
Garut breed?which frequently bears twins and can attain a weight of 50
kilograms?with the idea of crossing them with local sheep to improve the stock.
He chose sheep over other grazers because they are more disease resistant, more
prolific, and less likely to damage the perennials than goats and they compact
the soil less than the heavier cattle. To find the most suitable pasture he
imported seeds for trials with the help of John M. Hayman of the Colombo Plan
(New Zealand). Should his sheep raising experiment prove successful, he has in
mind developing a profitable home industry from wool. He is also grazing water
buffaloes among young budded rubber trees on land covered with a mixture of
legumes and grasses.
With grazing and intercropping
WESTENBERG feels he has developed a system whereby all plantation costs land
clearing to the maturity of the perennial crop be paid for. Annual crops can be
planted between the young perennials until the land becomes too shaded-about
the third or fourth year; the land can then be converted to grazing and a
further income made from the animals. With the new high yield seeds and a
variety of combinations, he has proved at Kebun Djerak that it is possible not
only to pay costs but also to make a profit with this system. For example,
one-month-old budded rubber trees have been intercropped with mungo beans,
six-month trees with sorghum, eight-month trees with rubber nursery stock later
to be budded and sold, and 18-month trees with field corn. Coconut trees on flee
land have been intercropped with sorghum and peanuts and under young dwarf
coconuts on sloping land a ground cover of legumes for grazing has been tested.
WESTENBERG sees intercropping as
a means by which large areas can be opened for perennial crops (rubber,
coconut, fruit) with a limited amount of capital invested in a revolving fund,
and the only way for small farmers with no capital but unused land to turn
their idle assets into a profitable enterprise. In overpopulated areas
intercropping provides more efficient land use and a living for jobless people.
WESTENBERG cautions, however, that due to the danger of erosion, sloping land
is more suitable for grazing than short-term cash crops and all land muse be
grazed in rotation in order not to destroy the pasture cover.
Another export crop receiving
attention is the coconut. He seeks to reverse the declining trend of crop yield
for copra resulting from increasing home consumption of coconut products by a
growing population without compensatory replanting of coconut trees, and
displacement of coconuts in many areas by the oil palm. He has concentrated on
dwarf coconuts popularly known as Kelapa Nias, which mature earlier than common
coconuts (four years instead of seven or eight), have a slightly higher production
of nuts and are easier to harvest. They are also self-pollinating, they respond
better to fertilizers, and 280 dwarf trees can be planted on one hectare
compared to 100 of the common kind.
His work on dwarf coconuts has
created an eager market; demand exceeded his production by 60,000 and he had to
refuse new customers. He has also introduced a hybrid?based on Ivory Coast
research?which is the result of planting selected common coconuts with dwarfs
from which the male flowers have been removed so that they cross rather than
self pollinate. With proper fertilizer application the hybrid will come into
production, like the dwarf, in four years and yield four tons of copra per
hectare, compared with the average yield of 600 kilograms from the common tall
coconut.
WESTENBERG heard many reports
about superior rice varieties being developed at the International Rice
Research Institute (IRRI) at Los Ba?os in the Philippines and was convinced
these high yield varieties would solve the looming shortage in Indonesia of
this basic food crop. He knew that, given the annual population growth rate of
more than 2.5 percent, the extension of rice cultivation to even an additional
200,000 hectares would not cover the projected deficit as long as yield levels
remained at two tons per hectare. Doubling or trebling production on the eight
million hectares of existing farms with high yielding varieties, however, would
mean an abundant supply and would require no additional investment in land and
comparatively little investment in seed, fertilizer and pesticide. The latter
could quickly be repaid out of increased production and real profits would
accrue to the depressed small cultivators.
A friend with whom he had
exchanged seeds and ideas managed to gee him 2.5 kilograms of IR-8 and IR-5
seeds (renamed in Indonesia Peta Barn 8 and Peta Barn 5) in February 1967. He
immediately planted this precious nucleus stock on one-quarter hectare each to
test the varieties for adaptability and yield under local conditions. The military
commander of Sumatra visited the farm in May. Impressed with the crop
performance and potential, he offered WESTENBERG Rp.1 million (US$5,814 at the
1967 average of Rp.172 to US$1) for a pilot multiplication project.
The next season, using this money
given by the army through Kommando Operasi Harapan (KOPAN) the rice seed
multiplication area was increased to five hectares, 2.5 hectares for each
variety. When the plants matured WESTENBERG invited the senior army of officers
from Medan to witness?from a pavilion erected directly in front of the
field?the harvesting, threshing and weighing of the rice. Both varieties
yielded eight tons of paddy per hectare?four times the yield of local
varieties.
Having seen for themselves, the
army officials quickly approved WESTENBERG?s proposal for a 500-hectare seed
multiplication project in the fields of neighboring farmers which would provide
nucleus seed for all rice growers in Sumatra. The cost of Rp.43 million
(US$111,399 at the 1968 average of Rp.386 to US$1) was covered by a repayable
short-term loan from KOPAN. WESTENBERG and his men canvassed the locality and
soon had 500 hectares pledged by some 600 farmers. Agreement to lend fields was
readily given because the fields were to be used during the dry season when
they were usually left fallow. Fifteen students from the Faculty and the
Academy of Agriculture of the University of North Sumatra were enlisted to
supervise the project at all stages of plant growth. WESTENBERG gave them an
intensive training course and divided the 500 hectares evenly among them. He
next called meetings of groups of cooperating farmers and the chiefs of their
villages and gave them detailed instructions on the operations to be carried
out in the fields from planting through harvesting.
Five newspapers in Medan and two
in Jakarta and Radio Republic Indonesia carried regular feature stories and
reports on the seed multiplication program. This boosted the morale of those
involved and informed people elsewhere of the great experiment with the new
seeds.
Planting proceeded according to
plan, with all the fertilizer and pesticide inputs required by the high
yielding varieties distributed from Kebun Djeruk. The fields of the five
percent of tradition-bound farmers who refused to apply fertilizers served as
control plots; the owners realized their folly at the time of harvest.
As the panicles emerged
WESTENBERG suggested to the army officials that the new technology would spread
more quickly if rice farmers and extension and civil service personnel from
other regions could see the standing crop and witness the harvest as they had.
The army officers agreed, made announcements and arranged free transportation.
Harvesting was scheduled over several days to allow as many farmers and
authorities as possible from the different regions of North Sumatra to see the
operations.
Threshing could be handled by
traditional methods in the fields and drying the large production was solved
with the help of one of WESTENBERG?s Chinese friends who arranged for use of
the drying yards of 10 local rice mills. KOPAN also donated to Kebun Djeruk a
40-horsepower moisture extraction unit with a capacity for drying at low
temperature 20 tons of seeds in 24 hours.
The total yield from the 500
hectares was 4,000 tons, of which WESTENBERG bought 800 tons and left the
remainder to the respective producers. Of his purchase, 500 tons were sold to
the governor of North Sumatra for distribution among farmers in different
regions of his province. About 200 tons were sold at a reduced price to the
student action organization, Kersatuan Akshi Mahasiswa Indonesia (KAMI).
Mounting a program they christened "The Mobile Shop of New
Technology," the students took the seeds, fertilizers and pesticides in
five trucks made available to them by the army and sold them at cost to small
rice farmers in remote villages throughout the island. The remaining 100 tons
were sold directly by Kebun Djeruk to rice farmers, who were required to
purchase for Rp.30 (seven and a half U.S. cents) the leaflet Pedoman Penanaman
Padi PB-5 and PB-8 (Guide to Cultivation of IR-5 and IR-8), which WESTENBERG
had produced giving detailed instructions on planting and maintaining the new
varieties. Proceeds from these sales enabled WESTENBERG to repay in full the
army loan for the seed multiplication project.
A few weeks after this harvest of
the first second rice cropping in the region the cooperating farmers arranged a
day-long festival to honor presenting him with an ulos (a ceremonial shawl
given as a symbol of respect and gratitude).
The more than 400,000 hectares
planted with the multiplied seed in the next dry season yielded a crop with an
estimated value of US$10 million. With their extra income many farmers bought
cattle, sheep, goats and pigs. Others built new houses or purchased
motorcycles. Several communities, seeing the benefits to be obtained, built new
irrigation schemes. Small village rice hullers sprang up to cope with the
increased production.
WESTENBERG continued testing new
rice varieties as they were released by IRRI. He was the first to market IR-22.
When he found quick maturing IR-24 was the best seed for north Sumatran soil
and climate he immediately multiplied it and made it available to local
farmers. IR-22 and IR-24 found ready acceptance by farmers who quickly
recognized their better properties.
WESTENBERG also rented in Tebing
Tinggi (Deli) a rice mill with drying facilities which he has made available to
local farmers.
Farmers are not the only ones to
have benefited from WESTENBERG research and the ready sharing of his results.
He has turned to professors of the Faculty of Agriculture of North Sumatra
University for technical information and they have learned from him by
observing his experience. Under an agreement with this faculty, agriculture
students have been coming since 1967 to live and learn-by-participating at
Kebun Djeruk. "These students are my army," says WESTENBERG with
enthusiasm.
The service that Kebun Djeruk
provides small farmers is indicated by the volume of improved planting
materials sold by it and its cooperating farmers from January 1963 through
October 1972:
Planting Material
Kgs.
Total Single Plant Units
Rice seeds
827,552
Rubber buddings
650,004
Rubber seeds (sold by count)
2,272,050
Dwarf coconuts
33,452
Patchuli cuttings
1,399,400
Buddings of fruit trees
11,834
Clove seedlings
13,921
Corn seeds
106,888
Pulse seeds
5,109
Sorghum seeds
3,043
Kebun Djeruk has been, not only a
reliable source of seeds and planting materials for crops that are economically
feasible for small farmers, but also a model of land use and organization. Its
test plots, rubber and coconut plantations, spice groves and fishponds are
neatly and efficiently arranged. Staff housing and student dormitory, a repair
shop for machinery, and warehouses for drying and storing seeds are laid out on
low ground. WESTENBERG?s house is on high ground, providing him a good view of
the farm from his bougainvillea-shaded porch; his living and dining rooms
double as an office and staff and student library.
For WESTENBERG and his full-time
staff of four the day starts before sun up and ends at 8:30 p.m. when the
generator is fumed off. About 130 workers arrive at 7 a.m., leaving at 11 a.m.
to work their own farms. It is WESTENBERG?s custom to take a hearty breakfast,
and after a light lunch, a brief rest, and to spend a portion of every
afternoon reading and writing. He views writing as one of the ways he can share
his knowledge. Schooled in English, French and German, and fluent from
childhood in Dutch and Indonesian, he has improved his mastery of English
through self-study and with foreign contacts. His most important writings are
in English and Indonesian; the latter includes many booklets and pamphlets
written for farmers on the best way to grow the crops he has propagated.
Visitors are also viewed as a way
to gain and share knowledge, and no week passes but WESTENBERG has many of
them. A frequent visitor and collaborator is Rudy F. Ramp, Deputy Director of
the Committee for American Relief Everywhere (CARE) based in Djakarta. Ramp has
worked in Southeast Asia for a number of years and is a great promoter of
WESTENBERG and Kebun Djeruk for Ramp has become convinced that "any
advance in agriculture must come from concerned people in the private sector as
governments are too unwieldy." John M. Hayman of the Colombo Plan (New
Zealand) agrees. His experiences as an agricultural project consultant have led
him to believe that national programs are bound to fail because the
organization necessary to run such programs becomes encumbered with bureaucracy
and, especially in countries of such diversity as Indonesia, cannot cope with
cultural differences. "Only private initiative of WESTENBERG?s type is
feasible," he has written.
As observers have noted,
WESTENBERG has been "well connected" for the work he has undertaken.
Through his father, his Dutch education and his early career, he has had close
European associations, early positions of responsibility and leadership, and
the opportunity to experiment on the estates he managed. Through his mother he
has had an identification with the leaders and the people of Sumatra and shares
some of the characteristics of the Bataks who "are commercially minded,
they want to learn and will debate." Through his wife and his best friend
and partner he has had close contacts with the Indonesian-Chinese intellectual
and commercial communities.
By 1970 the work at Kebun Djeruk
had grown to such proportions that WESTENBERG, then 72, began to think
seriously of how to provide for the continuation of his work. His sons had
chosen other careers. Johan, trained in economics, is an efficiency expert with
International Business Machines and teaches at the University of Amsterdam; he
has been only a visitor at Kebun Djeruk. Vincent is head of the technical
division of an estate.
WESTENBERG and his associates and
those of the international development community close to him concluded that a
foundation could best improve and expand what his inspiration and technical
expertise had begun. The foundation they envisaged would work in close
cooperation with the government Department of Agriculture, the faculties of
agriculture at various universities, the Research Institute of the Sumatra
Planters Association, and other Indonesian and international organizations
desirous of cooperating in research, experimentation and extension. All work of
the foundation would be guided by a technical advisory committee of world-class
experts from Indonesia and abroad and the staff would be recruited worldwide.
On August 7, 1972 the Yayasan
Pengembangan Usaha Tani Indonesia (Foundation for Indonesian Farming
Development) was established under the auspices of five founding members: Lt.
Gen. Hadji Dr. Ibnu Sutowo, President-Director of P.M. Pertamina, the
government-owned oil company; Maj. Gen. Josef Muskita, Director General of the
Ministry of Trade; Brig. Gen. Hadji Hasan Kasim, President-Director of Pupuk
Srividjaya, the large urea (fertilizer) factory in Palembang; Ir. Sadikin
Sumintawikarta Director General of the Ministry of Agriculture and HANS
WESTENBERG. Among the seven men named as managers, Dr. Zaimul Jasni, Assistant
to the Minister of Trade, serves as Chairman of the Foundation and Ir. Rochim
Wirjomidjojo, a Member of Parliament, as Executive Secretary. The six
supervisor-advisers include such men as Prof. Dr. Ir. Sayogio, on the staff of
the Bogor Institute of Agriculture, and Ir. Dahro, President of the Central
Indonesian Research Institute in Medan. WESTENBERG is managing consultant.
The shares of Kebun Djeruk?for
which WESTENBERG and his partners were compensated in the amount of Rp.22
million (US$51,402) from funds provided by Dr. Sutowo of Pertamina?were
transferred to the Foundation. Sutowo and Muskita, on behalf of the Ministry of
Trade, have pledged to finance the production and export of sorghum. The
fertilizer company Kasim heads has provided office space and facilities for the
Foundation in Djakarta. Kebun Djeruk and the new companies to be established
will continue to be run on a commercial basis.
The first of the new companies
has been organized to promote the production of sorghum by poor dryland
farmers. The company will handle the drying, storing, fumigation and export of
sorghum so produced. At WESTENBERG request a New Zealand agricultural expert
has been made available by the Australian CAA to assist with the project.
Though required by advancing
years to hand over active management of Kebun Djeruk, WESTENBERG has simply
reduced the scale of his work. On the nearby two-hectare farm he is buying for
himself and his wife he intends to experiment with new techniques of planting
and fertilizing crops which will benefit small farmers. He continues, through
contracts and correspondence with universities, research stations officials and
businessmen, to promote, for the welfare of the whole community better
utilization of Sumatra's "exceptionally favorable, almost optimum conditions"
of warm climate, fertile soil, adequate rainfall and a location outside the
path of cyclones and typhoons His goal remains constant; to release the small
farmer from hunger, poverty and ill-health by making him a part of the dynamic
process of rural development.
March 1973
Manila
REFERENCES:
Ginting Meneth. Beberapa Aspek
Ekonomi Produksi Padi Sawab Di Sumatera Utara (Some Economic Aspects of Rice
production in North Sumatra). Published with the cooperation of the Research
Bureaus of Faculties of Agriculture and Economics, University of North Sumatra,
Medan. 1970.
Kebun Djeruk. N. V. Perusahaan
Perkembangan Pertanian (Organization for Farming Development), Tebing Tinggi
Deli, North Sumatra. 1971. (Mimeographed with photographs.)
Narayanan, P. K. The Story of
Kebun Djeruk. December 1972. 16 p. (Mimeographed.)
Penny, D. H. The Economics of
Peasant Agriculture: The Indonesian Case. N.d .24 p. (Typewritten.)
______. Mr. H. Westenberg and
Kebun Djeruk. April 20, 1971. 10 p. (Mimeographed.)
Proposals on the Reorganization
of the Management and Financial Basis of Kebun Djeruk to Continue, Improve and
Expand its Activities in the Future. October 1970. 4 p. (Mimeographed.)
Rangkuti, A. R. "Kebun
Djeruk" As a Center of Agriculture Development. N.d. 20 p. (Mimeographed.
)
Roeder, O. G. "Stagnant Stability?"
Far Eastern Economic Review. Hong Kong. January 30, 1971.
Sajogyo. The Agro-Economic
Survey: A Case Study of Applied Research in Indonesian Agricultural Development
Efforts. N.d. 31 p. (Mimeographed.)
Westenberg, Hans. Comment on
"Research in Development Schemes" by Dr. Ir. R Soebrapradja presented
to the Seminar on the Development of North Sumatra. December 28, 1971.
(Mimeographed.)
______. An Effective Low Cost
System for the Promotion of Agricultural Development. February 25, 1973. 14 p.
(Mimeographed.)
______. Finding a Way to
Agricultural Development of Indonesia. N.d. 7 p. (Mimeographed.)
______. In a Short Time Indonesia
Produce Enough Rice to Stop Imports. April 29, 1968. 10 p. (Typewritten.)
______. Letter to Belen H. Abreu,
Executive Trustee, Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation re establishment of the
Foundation for Indonesian Farming Development. Kebun Djeruk Sumatra, Indonesia.
September 3, 1972.
______. Pilot Project "PADI
UTAMA" Kopan Kosgoro Experimental Farm. November 18, 1968. 10 p.
(Typewritten.)
______. Possibilities of Quick
Rural Development in North Sumatra Based on Results Obtained by Kebun Djeruk.
January 29, 1969. 6 p. (Typewritten.)
______. A Proposal to Male Use of
Private Initiative in Promoting Agricultural Development. N.d. 23 p.
(Mimeographed.)
______. Rescuing the Coconut
Industry. December 28, 1971. 2 p. (Mimeographed.)
______. Why Indonesian
Agriculture Remains Underdeveloped. October 27, 1971. 10 p. (Mimeographed.)
Wybenga Ir. J. M. Possibilities
of Technical Aid in the Agricultural Development of Indonesia with Special
Reference to North Sumatra's Conditions. July 15 1969. 12 p. (Typewritten.)
Visit to Kebun Djeruk and interviews
with persons acquainted with Hans Westenberg and his work.
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