INDONESIA / FREQUENT FLOODS

As climate change makes agriculture increasingly risky, having diverse sources of income is becoming more important for farmers inIndonesia. IFAD

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:04:14
• Production Date: 18 February 2013
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: INTERNATIONAL FUND FOR AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT - IFAD; INTERNATIONAL FUND FOR AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT - IFAD
• Subject Topical: ECONOMIC CONDITIONS; DEVELOPMENT; ENVIRONMENT; POPULATION; SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT; CLIMATE CHANGE
• Geographic Subject: INDONESIA
• MAMS Id: U130218a

Description

STORY: INDONESIA / FREQUENT FLOODS
TRT: 04.14
SOURCE: IFAD
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE:
Language: BAHASA INDONESIA / ENGLISH / NATS
Location: Lemusa village, Sulewesi Island, Indonesia [December 2012]

Shotlist

1. Med shot, Rita Rondunuwu collecting firewood
2. Wide shot, Rita Rondunuwu collecting firewood
3. Wide shot, Rita in house carrying food to family, follows her left to right
4. Med shot, Rita’s husband and son eating bananas
5. Close up, heavy rain in puddle
6. Med shot, heavy rain in puddle
7. SOUNDBITE (Bahasa Indonesia) Rita Rondunuwu, farmer:
“The earth was shaking so I said to my mother: mom, maybe it’s thunder. And my mother said, it’s not thunder, why does it smell like mud? And it’s so close. Very close.”
8. Close up, river
9. Close up, broken log
10. Wide shot, broken logs
11. Close up, broken log
12. Close up, river
13. SOUNDBITE (Bahasa Indonesia) Rita Rondunuwu, Farmer:
“In fact the flood was already behind the village.”
14. Wide shot, house surrounded by mud
15. Wide shot, house buried in mud
16. Wide shot, pile of broken logs by river
17. Wide shot, remains of house buried in mud with muddy shoe in foreground
18. Close up, muddy shoe
19. Wide shot, damaged houses buried in mud
20. Med shot, damaged houses buried in mud
21. Wide shot, damaged house
22. Wide shot, uprooted trees and flood damage
23. Wide shot, uprooted trees and flood damage
24. Med shot, Rita walking into frame past uprooted trees and dead cocoa trees
25. Wide shot, Rita walking past dead cocoa trees
26. Wide shot, remains of Rita’s farm, mud and uprooted trees and man walking in distance
27. SOUNDBITE (Bahasa Indonesia) Rita Rondunuwu, Farmer:
“Here we used to plant cocoa, from here until there. There was also coconut. At that time the river flow was on the other side and around here were coconuts and cocoa but after the flood there’s nothing. Not a single thing left.”
28. Med shot, river and uprooted trees
29. Wide shot, river and many uprooted trees
30. Wide shot, mud, uprooted trees, palm trees in the background
31. SOUNDBITE (Bahasa Indonesia) Rita Rondunuwu, Farmer:
“Of course, I feel very sad because this was the hope for my children for schooling. All gone.”
32. Pan left, Rita looking at flood damage and uprooted trees
33. Wide shot, Rita and woman weaving baskets
34. Close up, Rita’s foot holding down basket, hands weaving
35. Close up, Rita’s face
36. Med shot, Rita’s hands weaving basket
37. Wide shot, Rita and weaving group, woman passes baskets to Rita
38. Close up, woman’s face in weaving group
39. Wide shot, Rita and other woman fill sack with baskets
40. Med shot, Rita’s hands tying sack of baskets
41. Close up, Rita’s hands opening accounts book revealing money
42. Pan right, Rita and weaving group, Rita distributes money
43. Close up, Rita’s hand passing money to another woman
44. Pan left, Rita passes money to another woman
45. SOUNDBITE (Bahasa Indonesia) Rita Rondunuwu, Farmer:
“Fortunately we have this business making these baskets to earn money for the family for food. We don’t think of anything else, just food.”
46. Med shot, Since Deto and husband removing debris from their land
47. Close up, Since’s husband’s hands removing debris
48. Wide shot, Since Deto and husband removing debris from their land
49. Wide shot, Since Deto and husband removing debris from their land, foundation of house in foreground
50. Med shot, Since Deto and husband removing debris from their land
51. SOUNDBITE (Bahasa Indonesia) Since Deto:
“I feel so hopeless. It is hard to get food and clothes.”
52. Wide shot, Since stripping palm fronds, child in background
53. Close up, Since’s hands stripping palm fronds
54. Med shot, Since giving stripped palm fronds to Rita
55. Close up, Rita’s face
56. Med shot, Rita handing money to Since
57. Wide shot, weaving group, trainer explaining book-keeping to Rita
58. Med shot, trainer and Rita looking at book
59. Close up, book, trainer pointing, Rita writing
60. Med shot, two women watching
61. Wide shot, weaving group, trainer explaining book-keeping to Rita
62. Zoom out, children running with tyres through puddles and uprooted trees
63. Med shot, woman sitting on uprooted tree
64. Wide shot, woman sitting on uprooted tree, car drives past
65. SOUNDBITE (English) Ron Hartman, IFAD Country Program Manager, Indonesia:
“Lemusa village I think is a good example of many villages across Indonesia in terms of its vulnerability. And opportunities to diversify from agriculture has provided people in this village, such as the basket weavers, an opportunity that if a disaster does hit that they are able to still generate some income for livelihood.”
66. Wide shot, Rita and woman weaving baskets
67. Med shot, Rita weaving basket
68. Close up, complete basket, Rita places it on pile of baskets

Storyline

Rita Rondunuwu is a farmer here in Lemusa village in Sulawesi, Indonesia. With the earnings from her one hectare plot of land, she has provided for her children and her sick husband.

But four months ago, tragedy struck.

SOUNDBITE (Bahasa Indonesia) Rita Rondunuwu, farmer:
“The earth was shaking so I said to my mother: mom, maybe it’s thunder. And my mother said, it’s not thunder, why does it smell like mud? And it’s so close. Very close. In fact the flood was already behind the village.”

The flood swelled the rivers and burst a nearby dam. Hundreds of uprooted trees were swept down the mountain and the village was covered by six metres of mud. Two people died that night.

It’s a story that’s become far too common in Indonesia. Almost every month there are floods . And with changing weather patterns, they occur even in the dry season. Deforestation on mountain slopes causes a loosening of the soil, so heavy rains often result in landslides, leading to this kind of destruction.

It was two weeks before the mud hardened and Rita could check on her farm. This is what she found.

SOUNDBITE (Bahasa Indonesia) Rita Rondunuwu, farmer:
“Here we used to plant cocoa, from here until there. There was also coconut. At that time the river flow was on the other side and around here were coconuts and cocoa but after the flood there’s nothing. Not a single thing left. Of course, I feel very sad because this was the hope for my children for schooling. All gone.”

Rita’s farm may be gone but there is still hope. A few years ago, she started weaving baskets to supplement her income, but it wasn’t earning her much money. Then she heard that with support from the Indonesian Government and the UN agency IFAD, she
could access funds to develop her business if she was part of a group. So she joined with other weavers, and with those funds they could buy enough palm fronds to quickly fill big orders. They now supply a number of restaurants around the country and share the profits. All of the women here lost their farms in the flood. Without the weaving, none of their families would have any source of income.

SOUNDBITE (Bahasa Indonesia) Rita Rondunuwu, farmer:
“Fortunately we have this business making these baskets to earn money for the family for food. We don’t think of anything else, just food.”

And this basket business is not just helping the weavers. Their neighbour Since Deto was getting ready to harvest her rice crop when the flood hit. She not only lost her one hectare paddy, but this is all that remains of her home. She, her husband and her three children were left with only the clothes on their backs.

SOUNDBITE (Bahasa Indonesia) Rita Rondunuwu, farmer:
“I feel so hopeless. It is hard to get food and clothes.”

But because Rita’s weaving business survived the flood, Since can now earn some money. She spends her days stripping palm leaves and she sells these to the weavers.

Meanwhile, with additional support from IFAD, the weavers are learning marketing and book-keeping, so that their business can grow. According to the organisation’s Ron Hartman, it’s essential to encourage farmers to have diverse sources of income, especially with climate and environmental changes making agriculture far more risky.

SOUNDBITE(English) Ron Hartman, IFAD Country Program Manager, Indonesia:
“Lemusa village I think is a good example of many villages across Indonesia in terms of its vulnerability; and opportunities to diversify from agriculture has provided people in this village, such as the basket weavers, an opportunity that if a disaster does hit that they are able to still generate some income for livelihood.”

And with this income, Rita and the other weavers can now start to rebuild their lives.