When the generosity subsided

De jure, Nazan has two children and a wife. But de facto he has to share his attention to more than those three persons. Besides his children and wife, Nazan also has to take care of his organic vegetable plants that he grows in the demonstration plot in front of his house. Since he joined to community-based organization (CBO) Geurundong Jaya that receives support from ChildFund last year, he really takes care and occupies himself in his experimental organic garden.

Nazan or Muhammad Nazan Rizky (32 years old) lives in Geurundong Village, Sub-district Jeumpa, District Bireuen. This area is not far from east coast of Aceh overlooking Malacca Strait. Every day, he takes his time entering his fence-surrounded organic garden. In this garden he plants cabbage, spinach, and water spinach.

“I get all the seeds from ChildFund through CBO Geurundong Jaya. Not only seeds, I also get other farming tools,” said Nazan, a graduate from junior high school.

When it doesn’t rain, Nazan and his wife water all the plants. They dispel the insects, clear away the grass and other weeds. They are even willing to clean every leaf of their plants. “We have hopes in these plants. We can not see the result now, but we don’t complain. As long as it is halal, we will do it,” said Nazan, accompanied by his wife Widyawati (28 years old) from East Java.

Everyday Nazan does odd jobs. He does everything depending on the demand from people. It can be building a house, doing the garden, working in the rice field. When there is no job, Nazan will go out to sea to catch fish using his father’s boat.

But according to him, fishing with boat can not give you good result. A small boat and a paddle will never get to the middle of the sea. It can only float around the beach line. Consequently, he can only get some small fish.

Furthermore, he also feels that the sea is not as rich as it was when he was still a boy. He said that, until five years ago, the sea near his village still had many fish. But recently it seems that the fish have disappeared from the sea. “This morning I tried to go back fishing, but still not much I could get,” said Nazan.

His catch is not for self consumption, but to be sold to the market or he sells it through a warung near his house. He also depends on the vegetable he plants in his garden. For instance when some staff members of ChildFund visited him, his wife was busy preparing lunch with the vegetables from his garden in front of their house.

If Nazan spend his day to earn a living, at night he is occupied with his organic garden. His main activity is producing compost for his organic plants. He already prepares the ingredients to produce compost like banana trunks, cattle manure, parkia (petai) and white leadtree leaves. “I produce compost at night so that it won’t disturb my schedule as a breadwinner,” said Nazan.

Nazan gathers knowledge on organic farming from organic agriculture training from Balai Penyuluh Pertanian (Agriculture Information Office) Agriculture Agency District Bireuen. He also often has discussion with ChildFund’s field officer specialized in agricultural advocacy. Besides being a beneficiary from ChildFund’s financial program, Nazan also receives other benefit such as technical briefing on organic farming.

“It’s not difficult to work with ChildFund. I only have to prepare a place for a demonstration plot, and then I received everything I need,” said Nazan.

Almost all plants in Nazan’s organic garden have already grown ripe and ready to be picked. And he told us that he had already picked up the result several times before. Some part of it is for his consumption, some other part is for his neighbors. He told us that he also sells the organic crops to the market, which is eight kilometers away from his house. He goes there by bicycle.

“When fate is on my side, a bunch of cabbage can be sold at IDR 500. But when I have bad luck, the price can fall down to IDR 1,000 for four bunches of cabbage,” said Nazan.

He observes that there still not many people in his area who likes to eat vegetables. People prefer meat or fish. Vegetables, especially cabbages, are mostly bought by noodles sellers. But recently many people start to sell similar vegetables. That is the problem that Nazan has to face in developing organic farming. “There is almost no other problem. Most possible would be the attack from insects, chicken, and neighbor’s cattle,” he said.

With unpredictable income, Nazan still hopes that his farming will lead his family to a better life.

Mariana Hasbie