At our farm, we honor traditional agriculture practices by growing organic fruits and vegetables for our community. In doing so, we promote healthy eating and living, protect the natural environment and ensure that Balinese culture and traditions, which were built on agriculture, continue to survive for the generations to come.
All of Balinese culture has its basis in rice cultivation, which first began in the Pejeng area more than 1000 years ago. The original organization of a Balinese village derives from the Subak irrigation system, which connected water to food to God; thus embodying Bali’s Tri Hita Karena (people, the environment and God) belief system. And the first Balinese rituals were related to efficient harvesting and praying to the Gods for rain and a strong crop.
Today, this fundamental village organizing principle of organic agriculture is under threat as more and more farm land is converted for tourism development. This isn’t to say that tourism is monolithically bad; it’s important that tourism is acknowledged for its vital role in contributing to poverty reduction on the island. The development of the industry has allowed Bali’s poverty rate to be several times lower than Indonesia’s overall rate and it has funneled money into funding restoration of cultural landmarks.
But there are negative side effects as well. Discussions of whether or not tourism has “ruined” Bali are cliche nowadays, but they speak truth to the environmental impact. Water tables have risen, especially in the most crowded Balinese destinations, land is constantly cleared, trash pollution often goes unregulated.
Pejeng Village, which has witnessed the ways that its neighboring villages have rapidly transformed into unrecognizable versions of their former selves, is committed to sustaining the way of life that people in the area have practiced for over a thousand years. In 2015, a group of nine community leaders from the hamlet of Panglan created Mai Organic Farm to further this cause.
The initial phase of this project started with 28 acres owned by one of Mai Organic’s founders. Mai Organic manages the land through a harvest sharing system. The original priorities were to: organize the garden, prepare suitable seeds to fertilize the soil, prepare the necessary toils, soil erosion, build huts for rest and socializing, create a water reservoir that will also function as a fish pond, make house seeds, compost and build toilets. Having achieved this, Mai Organic Farm now grows fruits and vegetables without any chemical additives for the community.
At the same time, Mai Organic is also aware that agriculture alone is simply not financially sustainable in Bali’s new economy, which revolves almost exclusively around tourism. In 1970, Bali’s economy was substantially based on agriculture. Today, estimates place tourism as contributing more than 80% to the Balinese economy, a substantial increase from its 12.95% contribution in 1970. And a 2008 study of global tourism found that the tourism industry employs than 1.1 million of Bali’s 1.7 million-person labor force, a number that could only have risen in the past few years.
Furthermore, farmers have historically been among the poorest Indonesians because of low prices, making it even more difficult for agriculture to sustain itself. Thus, Mai Organic seeks to balance these two competing interests, tourism development and agricultural, cultural and environmental sustainability, by inviting visitors and dedicated volunteers to visit our farm and participate in agro-tourism activities.
We are not a tour company; rather, we are a movement to refocus tourism to environmentally-conscious activities and to preserve our heritage.
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