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An
offering to Dewi Sri, the rice goddess, includes a symbolic
depiction of the goddess herself. A representation of the
life force, she is the most widely worshipped deity in Bali.
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The
so-called rice revolution has had an enormous impact on Bali, as
it has on all Asian rice-growing countries. For more than twenty
years, the International Rice Research Institute, headquartered
in the Philip- pines, has been developing high-yield rice strains
resistant to disease and pests. Ball's traditional rice variety,
beras Bali, is a graceful plant which reaches a height
of around 1.4 metres (56 inches). It has a superior flavour and
many Balinese willingly pay up to four times the price of ordinary
rice for it. But the most widely used new rice in Bali is the unimaginatively
named IR36, developed by the IRRI.
This so-called "miracle" rice
takes roughly 120 days to mature compared to the 150 days required
for beras Bali. It is now grown in 90 percent of Ball's
rice fields. Traditionally, the long stems of beras Bali
were tied together in sheaves, carried to the granary for storing,
then pounded in a big wooden mortar to dislodge the husks when rice
was needed. The stems of IR36, however, are short (half the height
of beras Bali) and the grains easily dislodged. Thus,
threshing has to take place immediately after harvesting. Certain
traditional rice harvesting practices, including the construction
of granaries, are dying out with the introduction of the new varieties.
The Balinese acknowledge the superior yield and growth rate of the
new plants: in 1979, Bali almost doubled the amount of rice it had
harvested a decade earlier.
Since
1984, Indonesia has been able to provide sufficient rice to feed
its burgeoning population and can now concentrate on developing
varieties better suited to local conditions. The Department of Agri-
culture is now experimenting with rice strains that can, it is hoped,
eventually be reconciled with the basic foundations of Balinese
culture. Dewi Sri, it seems certain, will continue to be honoured
and her blessings sought for many more generations.
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