Page 311 - Ranah Studi Agraria: Penguasaan Tanah dan Hubungan Agraris

Ranah Studi Agraria

surprised to find that there does not seem to be any indication
of association between the high landlessness and tenancy rates
(compare column (6+7) to (2+4+6). In Village IV (Sukosari),
tenancy is extremely low despite a very high proportion (51

percent) of absolute landless households. Aside from this high
landlessness, the low tenancy rate in this village may be due to
the common practices of betonan or kedokan which share
21
some characteristics of tenant farmers but by definition were
not included in the category of tenancy. In Village II (Lanjan),
tenancy was low and owner operators were predominant (54
percent of all households, second rank following Village VII
Malausma). There is no clear explanation for this except that
it may be due to “historical heritage”. Village II is relatively
recently settled and in the past the lands were cultivated by
migrants many of whom originated from Central Java before
they finally settled here. It is noteworthy, however, that among
lowland villages the proportion of “tenant-in” households in
this village is the highest (12.9 percent), most of them acquir-
ing lands from adjacent villages. In fact, according to previ-
ous RDS studies, these features characterize Village II (i. e.
villagers obtaining access to lands outside the village while
outsiders lease-in land from Lanjan).

21 A system in which farm laborers have to do particular stages of
work during the rice cultivation without being paid in money, and
rewarded in terms of rights to harvest from which they will obtain
a certain share, commonly much higher than the common harves-
ter’s share.

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