Page 345 - Ranah Studi Agraria: Penguasaan Tanah dan Hubungan Agraris

Ranah Studi Agraria

Looking at one indicator of labor market structure only
(sources of family income) the predominant pattern was mul-
tiple sources from combinations of farming, farm laboring and
non agricultural activities. Relatively few households had

moved out of agriculture altogether and, indeed, the majority
reported farming as their major source of family income.
Sawah owning households, however small their plots of land,
were for the most part not prepared to move entirely out of
agriculture, perhaps both because of relative security and high
31
earnings in sawah agriculture. Although this paper did not
look at sectors of employment for individual household mem-
bers, preliminary analysis suggest the majority of both wives
and children of household heads in land owning classes con-
tinued to channel the main share of their labor inputs into
farming (See Wiradi, Manning and Sri Hartoyo, 1984). This
implies that both farm laboring and non agricultural employ-
ment provide sources of income mainly in of peak periods. 32
We have noted some major contrasts in the lowland and
upland villages with respect to landlessness, tenancy and
sources of family income. Higher landlessness, less equal dis-
tribution of sawah land and greater family labor involvement
in wage labor (both within and outside agriculture) character-

31 It is quite likely that a different pattern would obtain in pre-
dominantly dry land agricultural villages, with total sectoral shifts
being of greater significance.
32 This ‘counter seasonality’ pattern is discussed in Husein Sawit and
Djoko Triono (1984), from analysis of survey data on labor alloca-
tion strategies of families engage in farm laboring activities in
five of the villages.

276