Page 394 - Ranah Studi Agraria: Penguasaan Tanah dan Hubungan Agraris

Agrarian and Nonagrarian Bases ...

overcome, are questions which our data cannot answer. How-
ever, another development consistent with the ‘labor demand’
hypothesis is the spread in many villages of alternative labor
recruitment practices in place of casual daily labor which func-

tion for the employer either to assure him or her of labor sup-
ply at peak periods, to reduce labor costs as ‘normal’ casual
wage rates rise, or in some cases to achieve both of these.
Table 7.10 shows the frequency of various such practices in
the sample villages in 1981. Borongan (contract) labor is now
found in all except one village in preharvest work, and while it
is not completely new there is general agreement that it is
increasing. Individuals or more commonly groups of labor-
ers are paid a fixed rate to complete some operation (land
preparation, transplanting, or harvesting) on a certain area of
sawah; the work is more quickly completed with laborers of-
ten working longer hours per day, sometimes far into the eve-
ning after working elsewhere for a ‘daily’ wage, and the total
cost per hectare is less than casual daily labor (Soentoro et al.
1981:40). A smaller number of borongan workers therefore
obtain a lower wage for the task but by expending more time
or effort they can earn more each day.
In Kebanggan and Sukosari, virtually all farmers use the

labor-tying arrangement known most frequently as ceblokan
in West Java and Kedokan in Central and East Java, although it
also goes by a variety of other local names. In order to gain
access to a harvest bawon, workers are obliged to perform
some preharvest labor and sometimes also post- harvest la-
bor without pay. In Sukosari kedokan workers (called betonan
workers if they make a group contract) must transplant, weed,

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