Cot Seulamat farmers overcome the challenge of tsunami sediments
A small ACIAR project trial in 2007 has helped rehabilitate 60 hectares of rice fields in west Aceh. Cot Seulamat is one of many low lying coastal villages near Meulaboh on the west coast of Aceh.

Villages immediately on the coast were mostly completely destroyed and those like Cot Seulamat that lie further inland were swamped by tsunami sediment that left thick deposits of peat material on rice fields and in canals and drains. The sediment was too deep to mix into the original soil layer and no resources were available to remove it.

After the failure of two successive post-tsunami rice crops, local extension staff contacted BPTP (Assessment Institute for Agricultural Technology) for help. Led by the Indonesian Centre for Rice Research and BPTP researchers, a trial was established with local farmers to determine the cause of the crop failures and to demonstrate varieties and methods that could cope with peat sediment.

Could rice varieties bred for swampy coastal conditions in other parts of Indonesia be the answer to the restoration of farming in Cot Seulamat?

The results exceeded expectations. The swampy rice varieties performed best in the trial and all varieties were productive with the changes in management demonstrated at the site. Revisiting Cot Seulamat in March 2010, previously overgrown fields are now planted to rice, 60 hectares in total, with another 20 hectares ready for the first planting in six years.

Two key factors helped lead to the restoration of farming. The ACIAR project sponsored a farmer visit to peatland rice farming areas in Palembang, South Sumatra, where farmers saw planting methods and varieties that showed it would be possible to farm rice again in Cot Seulamat.

The visit of Australian Ambassador to Indonesia, Bill Farmer in 2007, encouraged local government to restore the irrigation and drainage system, enabling the complete restoration of rice farming in Cot Seulamat.

The strength of the ACIAR project approach lies in combining the research expertise of national rice and soils institutes, the extension skills of BPTP and ‘learning by doing’ and ‘train the trainer’ philosophies that have been employed to engage and teach farmers and local extension staff. In this way the successful results of a demonstration site have a greater chance of being adopted in surrounding villages.

Five years on from the tsunami, Cot Seulamat farmers continue to use the swampland rice varieties from the 2007 demonstration and are satisfied with achieving higher yields than before the tsunami. The farmers say that the soil has improved with cultivation and they can now grow their preferred local varieties for home consumption.