The Government Trains Indigenous Papuan Farmers to Use Hand Tractors

The district government (Pemkab) of Jayawijaya, Papua Province, is training indigenous Papuan farmers to use hand tractors so that they no longer use traditional tools such as shovels and hoes.

Secretary of the Jayawijaya Agriculture Office, Viktor Malisa, said that the training was carried out directly with farmers on agricultural land. The government hopes that with training, service staff will no longer plow rice fields. “The main goal is how we have people who are hand tractor operators able to work by paying attention to several important things. First, personal safety and agricultural equipment because these are heavy equipment and are expensive," he said, Sunday (11/14).

The government trained the groups from the Pyramid, Siepkosy, Walelagama and Libarek districts to be efficient in terms of time, energy, and fuel, because most of the trained farmers were not familiar with these machines. “With this training, we improve their knowledge and skills so that important things are not neglected, thus work safety is guaranteed, tools can also be well maintained. In theory and practice, they have been introduced to how to care for and maintain tractors,” he said.

At the beginning of practicing the use of a hand tractor that took place in Libarek District, a number of young beginners were still hesitant, but after several times plowing the land they began to adapt to the two machines provided by the government for practice.

“The rice farmer groups in Jayawijaya are all local Jayawijaya boys. During this time, if they had any doubts about using heavy equipment like this, now they are more confident. From the training there are young people who are just learning but have the will,” he said.

This training is in line with the vision of the Jayawijaya Government, which is to create a prosperous, economically independent, cultured, and quality society. “Initially, it was we (government employees) who went down to plow the land. However, according to the government's vision, we teach independence, not dependence. One example of this training is so that they know and are good at using agricultural tools,” he said.

The Head of Agricultural Infrastructure at the Jayawijaya Agriculture Office, Maninus Kosay, who was present at the training, gave an introduction to the tools and how to implement them on agricultural land.

He motivates these traditional farmers to follow technological developments that emerge in today's modern times. “From traditional tools, namely shovels, hoe, but it goes into a very large area, so we have to teach the mechanization of these tools to farmers. In the training we teach them from the introduction of tools, maintenance and applications," he said.

The introduction of the hand tractor includes several parts, namely the handlebar, engine, rubber wheel, iron wheel, singkal tool, comb and rotary tool, including the oil used and how to use the machine.

"We teach them from the introduction of the engine, starting, maintenance such as diesel must be added when it is reduced to half a liter, recognizing the symptoms of when the oil must be changed so that the engine can last longer because this machine tool is not available in Jayawijaya," he said.

He advised farmers to build a warehouse to store the machines because they were provided by the government for free and it took a difficult struggle to get to Jayawijaya, because they were sent from outside Papua even by plane.

"We at the office are committed that the machines that are not maintained by the farmer group will be relocated to another group," he said.

SOURCE: https://indonesiatimur.id/2021/11/15/government-unjuk-petani-asli-papua-gunakan-traktor-tangan/