Abstract
Subak is Bali’s traditional cooperative irrigation system consisting of farmer associations coordinated by water temples, festivals and rituals, that had allocated water and synchronize cropping across entire watersheds for centuries. With the best of intentions, during the Green Revolution of the 1970s, Indonesia received large multiyear irrigation loans and outside technical assistance, including from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank to adopt high-yielding rice varieties, chemical inputs, and year-round planting programs This resulted in severe pest outbreaks and local conflict. With study of the complexity of the traditional water management system, policy makers reverted to the time-honored practices. More recently, the Indonesian government proposed and received UNESCO inscription (2012) that formally recognizes the temple–terrace–canal system as a single cultural landscape, resulting in more unintented consequences from contemporary pressures including tourism water demand and land conversion.
Presenters
Constance KirkerAssistant Professor, Retired, Department of Integrative Arts, Pennsylvania State University, Pennsylvania, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Irrigation, Rituals, Traditions, Complexity
