Class, Power, and Agrarian Change: Land and Labour in Rural West Java

261 Pages·1996·14.45 MB·English

by  Jonathan Pincus

STUDIES ON THE ECONOMIES OF EAST AND SOUTH-EAST ASIA
General Editors: Peter Nolan, Lecturer in the Faculty of Economics and
Politics, University of Cambridge, and Fellow and Director of Studies in
Economics, Jesus College, Cambridge, England; and Malcolm Falkus,
Professor of Economic History, University of New England, Armidale,
New South Wales, Australia
In the last decades of the twentieth century the small and medium-sized
nations of East and South-East Asia have begun a process of potentially
enormous political and economic transformation. Explosive growth has
occurred already in many parts of the region, and the more slowly grow
ing countries are attempting to emulate this vanguard group. The impact
of the region upon the world economy has increased rapidly and is likely
to continue to do so in the future.
In order to understand better economic developments within this vast and
diverse region, this series aims to publish books on both contemporary
and historical issues. It includes works both by Western scholars and by
economists from countries within the region.
Published titles include:
Melanie Beresford
NATIONAL UNIFICATION AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN
VIETNAM
John Butcher and Howard Dick (editors)
THE RISE AND FALL OF REVENUE FARMING
Mark Cleary and Shuang Yann Wong
OIL, DEVELOPMENT AND DIVERSIFICATION IN
BRUNEI DARUSSALAM
Yujiro Hayami and Toshihiko Kawagoe
THE AGRARIAN ORIGINS OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY
Jomo K. S.
GROWTH AND STRUCTURAL CHANGE IN THE MALAYSIAN
ECONOMY
Medhi Krongkaew (editor)
THAILAND'S INDUSTRIALIZATION AND ITS CONSEQUENCES
Lee Sheng-Yi
MONEY AND FINANCE IN THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF
TAIWAN
Rajah Rasiah
FOREIGN CAPITAL AND INDUSTRIALIZATION IN MALAYSIA
Class Power and
Agrarian Change
Land and Labour in Rural West Java
Jonathan Pincus
Management Information Expert
Food and Agriculture Organization
&
as First published in Great Britain 1996 by
MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS
and London
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library.
ISBN 0-333-64578-2
m
First published in the United States of America 1996 by
ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC.,
Scholarly and Reference Division,
175 Fifth Avenue,
New York, N.Y. 10010
ISBN 0-312-15827-0
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Pincus, Jonathan.
Class power and agrarian change : land and labour in rural West
Java / Jonathan Pincus.
p. cm. — (Studies in the economies of East and South-East
Asia)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-312-15827-0 (cloth)
I. Land reform—Indonesia—Java. 2. Social classes—Indonesia-
-Java. 3. Power (Social sciences)—Indonesia—Java. I. Title.
II. Series.
HD1333.I52J386 1996
305.5'23,095982—dc20 96-39114
CIP
© Jonathan Pincus 1996
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of
this publication may be made without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or
transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with
the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988,
or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying
issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court
Road, London W1P9HE.
Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this
publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil
claims for damages.
10 9 8 7 6 54 3 21
05 04 03 02 01 00 99 98 97 96
Printed in Great Britain by
The Ipswich Book Company Ltd, Ipswich. Suffolk
Contents
List of Tables vii
List of Figures xi
Preface xii
1 Introduction 1
2 Methodological Issues 19
3 Measuring Class Differentiation 37
4 Wage Labour Relations in Agriculture 93
5 The Process of Accumulation 147
6 Conclusion 188
Appendices
A The Subang Rural Price Index 194
B Real Wage Trends in Agriculture 198
C Supplementary Tables 204
Glossary of Terms and Acronyms 222
Bibliography 224
Index 245
v

List of Tables
1.1 Producer subsidies in rice in selected Asian cou ntries 6
1.2 Distribution of operated farm sizes, Java 1963-1983 10
1.3 Average annual growth of wage labour force and 11
population of self employed farmers, Java 1980-1990
1.4 Sectoral distribution of increase in wage employment, 12
Java 1980-1990
1.5 Real daily wages for male hoers in some rice- 13
cultivating regions of Asia, 1987
2.1 Population density and agrarian density in North and 23
South Subang subdistricts, 1971 -1990
2.2 Components of the possessions score 28
2.3 Possessions score summary statistics 30
3.1 Female-headed households 43
3.2 Spearman correlation coefficients for possessions 49
scores and control over irrigated rice fields
3.3 Mean possession scores by area controlled 50
3.4 Correlations of labour hiring, family labour, posses- 53
sions scores and access to land
3.5 Correlations of labour hiring, family labour, posses- 54
sions scores and access to land, small and middle
farmers
3.6 Spearman correlation coefficients for agricultural 56
labour days hired out with possessions scores and
access to land, farming households
3.7 LOGIT analysis of participation in agricultural wage 57
labour among farming households
3.8 Mean values of selected indicators for landless 61
agricultural labour households
3.9 Income from nonagricultural wage labour by 69
land-controlling category
3.10 Migrants to domestic work in the Middle East 70
3.11 Mean earnings from trade and industry by 72
land-controlling groups
3.12 Distribution of households by class 79
3.13 Post-hoc comparisons of group means for small and 80
middle farmers, South and East Subang
4.1 Location of pre-harvest wage employment, agricul- 102
tural workers from North Subang, dry season 1990
4.2 Labour days worked locally by North Subang farm 103
labourers by wage system, dry season 1990
vn
viii List of Tables
4.3 Location of harvest employment, North Subang 105
4.4 Labour days worked locally by East Subang farm 109
labourers by wage system, dry season 1990
4.5 Harvest shares under bawon and ceblokan systems 111
by class, East Subang, dry season 1990
4.6 Crosstabulation of ceblokan arrangements by class 113
category of farmer and worker, East Subang
4.7 Correlation matrix of ceblokan earnings from large 114
farmers, East Subang, dry season 1990
4.8 Location of harvest employment, East Subang 115
4.9 Location of pre-harvest wage employment, East 116
Subang
4.10 Location of pre-harvest and harvest labour days, 118
South Subang
4.11 Labour days worked locally by South Subang farm 120
labourers by wage system, dry season 1990
4.12 Earnings per hour for one, two and three task 122
ceblokan arrangements, South Subang (combined
harvest and pre-harvest wages)
4A3 Correlation matrix of ceblokan earnings from large 123
farmers, South Subang, dry season 1990
4.14 Real wages for daily wage and contract labour tasks, 129
dry seasons 1971, 1978/79 and 1990, (Rupiah per
hour, constant 1971 prices)
4.15 Labour and Capital's share of rice production per 132
hectare for large farmers, constant 1971 prices
5.1 Mean output per hectare and capital costs in rice 150
production by class category, dry season 1990
5.2 Distribution of bank borrowing by class category (Rp. 152
'000)
5.3 Mean output, returns and interest payments for 155
sharecroppers by class category, dry season 1990
5.4 Mean income per hectare from own-cultivation and 159
leasing by class category, dry season 1990 (Rp. '000
per hectare)
5.5 Purchases and sales of rice fields by class category, 163
1985-1990 (hectares)
5.6 Size distribution of rice field ownership, South 164
Subang, 1969,1979 and 1990
5.7 Mortgage of rice fields by class category, dry season 166
1990
5.8 Trade and nonagricultural activities 168
5.9 Ownership of mechanical tractors and rice hullers, 169
List of Tables ix
Subang District, 1970-1989
5.10 School enrolment rates for children 7 to 18 years of 171
age, West Java, Java, Indonesia and study villages
1989
5.11 Participation in salaried employment by class 172
category
5.12 Status of Village Co-operative Units and Farmer 174
Credit (Kredit Usaha TanU Subang District 1989-
1990
A. 1 Weights used for Subang 9 commodity price index 195
A.2 Comparison of the Subang rural price index with 196
Subang rice prices and the Java-wide rural price
index
B.l Percentage Increase in Real Hoeing Wages From 199
Village Studies, 1970 to 1987
B.2 Selected indicators of changes in labour demand and 203
supply, Java 1980-1990 (average growth rates per
annum)
C.l Size distribution of paddy field ownership, area 204
operated and area controlled, dry season 1990, North
Subang
C.2 Size distribution of paddy field ownership, area 205
operated and area controlled, dry season 1990, South
Subang
C.3 Size distribution of paddy field ownership, area 206
operated and controlled, dry season 1990, East
Subang
C.4 Ownership of dry land fields and fishponds, South 207
Subang
C.5 Agrarian density, gini ratios for sawah ownership 208
and per cent landless in 17 Javanese villages
C.6 Post-hoc comparisons (Scheffe test) of possessions 209
score means for land-controlling groups
C.7 Categorical groups for logit analysis 210
C.8 Participation in nonagricultural wage labour 211
C.9 Mean wages and labour days worked, nonagricul- 212
tural and agricultural wage labour, dry season 19901
C. 10 Trade and industry activities 213
C. 11 Work participation rates by class 214
C.l2 Pre-harvest labour use by task, North Subang 1979 215
and 1990 dry seasons (person-hours per hectare)
C.l3 Pre-harvest labour use by task, East Subang 1990 216