STUDIES ON THE ECONOMIES OF EAST AND SOUTH-EAST ASIA

General Editors: Peter Nolan, Lecturer in the Faculty of Economics and Politics, University of Cambridge, and Fellow and Director of Studies in Economics, Jesus College, Cambridge, England; and Malcolm Falkus, Professor of Economic History, University of New England, Armidale, New South Wales, Australia

In the last decades of the twentieth century the small and medium-sized nations of East and South-East Asia have begun a process of potentially enormous political and economic transformation. Explosive growth has occurred already in many parts of the region, and the more slowly grow­ing countries are attempting to emulate this vanguard group. The impact of the region upon the world economy has increased rapidly and is likely to continue to do so in the future.

In order to understand better economic developments within this vast and diverse region, this series aims to publish books on both contemporary and historical issues. It includes works both by Western scholars and by economists from countries within the region.

Published titles include:

Melanie Beresford NATIONAL UNIFICATION AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN VIETNAM

John Butcher and Howard Dick (editors) THE RISE AND FALL OF REVENUE FARMING

Mark Cleary and Shuang Yann Wong OIL, DEVELOPMENT AND DIVERSIFICATION IN

BRUNEI DARUSSALAM

Yujiro Hayami and Toshihiko Kawagoe THE AGRARIAN ORIGINS OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY

Jomo K. S. GROWTH AND STRUCTURAL CHANGE IN THE MALAYSIAN ECONOMY

Medhi Krongkaew (editor) THAILAND'S INDUSTRIALIZATION AND ITS CONSEQUENCES

Lee Sheng-Yi MONEY AND FINANCE IN THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF TAIWAN

Rajah Rasiah FOREIGN CAPITAL AND INDUSTRIALIZATION IN MALAYSIA

Class Power and Agrarian Change Land and Labour in Rural West Java

Jonathan Pincus Management Information Expert Food and Agriculture Organization

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First published in Great Britain 1996 by

MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills. Basingstoke, Hampshire RG2l 6XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978-1-349-39590-3 ISBN 978-0-230-37432-4 (eBook)

DOI 10.1057/9780230374324

First published in the United States of America 1996 by

ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC.. Scholarly and Reference Division, 175 Fifth A venue, New York, N.Y. 10010

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Pincus, Jonathan. Class power and agrarian change : land and labour in rural West Java I Jonathan Pincus. p. em.- (Studies in the economies of East and South-East Asia) Includes bibliographical references and index.

I. Land refom1-lndonesia-Java. 2. Social classes-Indonesia­-Java. 3. Power (Social sciences)-lndonesia-Java. I. Title. II. Series. HDJ333.152J386 1996 305.5'23'095982-dc20 96-39114

CIP

© Jonathan Pincus 1996

All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission <>f this publication may be made without written permission.

No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written pem1ission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Totlenham Court Road, London WI P 9HE.

Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

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Contents

List of Tables vii List of Figures xi Preface xii

1 Introduction 1 2 Methodological Issues 19 3 Measuring Class Differentiation 37 4 Wage Labour Relations in Agriculture 93 5 The Process of Accumulation 147 6 Conclusion 188

Appendices A The Subang Rural Price Index 194 B Real Wage Trends in Agriculture 198 C Supplementary Tables 204

Glossary of Terms and Acronyms 222 Bibliography 224 Index 245

v

List of Tables

1.1 Producer subsidies in rice in selected Asian cou ntries 6 1.2 Distribution of operated farm sizes, Java 1963-1983 10 1.3 Average annual growth of wage labour force and 11

population of self employed farmers, Java 1980-1990 1.4 Sectoral distribution of increase in wage employment, 12

Java 1980-1990 1.5 Real daily wages for male hoers in some rice- 13

cultivating regions of Asia, 1987 2.1 Population density and agrarian density in North and 23

South Subang subdistricts, 1971 -1990 2.2 Components of the possessions score 28 2.3 Possessions score summary statistics 30 3.1 Female-headed households 43 3.2 Spearman correlation coefficients for possessions 49

scores and control over irrigated rice fields 3.3 Mean possession scores by area controlled 50 3.4 Correlations of labour hiring, family labour, posses- 53

sions scores and access to land 3.5 Correlations of labour hiring, family labour, posses- 54

sions scores and access to land, small and middle farmers

3.6 Spearman correlation coefficients for agricultural 56 labour days hired out with possessions scores and access to land, farming households

3.7 LOGIT analysis of participation in agricultural wage 57 labour among farming households

3.8 Mean values of selected indicators for landless 61 agricultural labour households

3.9 Income from nonagricultural wage labour by 69 land-controlling category

3.10 Migrants to domestic work in the Middle East 70 3.11 Mean earnings from trade and industry by 72

land-controlling groups 3.12 Distribution of households by class 79 3.13 Post-hoc comparisons of group means for small and 80

middle farmers, South and East Subang 4.1 Location of pre-harvest wage employment, agricul- 102

tural workers from North Subang, dry season 1990 4.2 Labour days worked locally by North Subang farm 103

labourers by wage system, dry season 1990 vn

viii List of Tables

4.3 Location of harvest employment, North Subang 105 4.4 Labour days worked locally by East Subang farm 109

labourers by wage system, dry season 1990 4.5 Harvest shares under bawon and ceblokan systems 111

by class, East Subang, dry season 1990 4.6 Crosstabulation of ceblokan arrangements by class 113

category of farmer and worker, East Subang 4.7 Correlation matrix of ceblokan earnings from large 114

farmers, East Subang, dry season 1990 4.8 Location of harvest employment, East Subang 115 4.9 Location of pre-harvest wage employment, East 116

Subang 4.10 Location of pre-harvest and harvest labour days, 118

South Subang 4.11 Labour days worked locally by South Subang farm 120

labourers by wage system, dry season 1990 4.12 Earnings per hour for one, two and three task 122

ceblokan arrangements, South Subang (combined harvest and pre-harvest wages)

4A3 Correlation matrix of ceblokan earnings from large 123 farmers, South Subang, dry season 1990

4.14 Real wages for daily wage and contract labour tasks, 129 dry seasons 1971, 1978/79 and 1990, (Rupiah per hour, constant 1971 prices)

4.15 Labour and Capital's share of rice production per 132 hectare for large farmers, constant 1971 prices

5.1 Mean output per hectare and capital costs in rice 150 production by class category, dry season 1990

5.2 Distribution of bank borrowing by class category (Rp. 152 '000)

5.3 Mean output, returns and interest payments for 155 sharecroppers by class category, dry season 1990

5.4 Mean income per hectare from own-cultivation and 159 leasing by class category, dry season 1990 (Rp. '000 per hectare)

5.5 Purchases and sales of rice fields by class category, 163 1985-1990 (hectares)

5.6 Size distribution of rice field ownership, South 164 Subang, 1969,1979 and 1990

5.7 Mortgage of rice fields by class category, dry season 166 1990

5.8 Trade and nonagricultural activities 168 5.9 Ownership of mechanical tractors and rice hullers, 169

List of Tables ix

Subang District, 1970-1989 5.10 School enrolment rates for children 7 to 18 years of 171

age, West Java, Java, Indonesia and study villages 1989

5.11 Participation in salaried employment by class 172 category

5.12 Status of Village Co-operative Units and Farmer 174 Credit (Kredit Usaha TanU Subang District 1989-1990

A. 1 Weights used for Subang 9 commodity price index 195 A.2 Comparison of the Subang rural price index with 196

Subang rice prices and the Java-wide rural price index

B.l Percentage Increase in Real Hoeing Wages From 199 Village Studies, 1970 to 1987

B.2 Selected indicators of changes in labour demand and 203 supply, Java 1980-1990 (average growth rates per annum)

C.l Size distribution of paddy field ownership, area 204 operated and area controlled, dry season 1990, North Subang

C.2 Size distribution of paddy field ownership, area 205 operated and area controlled, dry season 1990, South Subang

C.3 Size distribution of paddy field ownership, area 206 operated and controlled, dry season 1990, East Subang

C.4 Ownership of dry land fields and fishponds, South 207 Subang

C.5 Agrarian density, gini ratios for sawah ownership 208 and per cent landless in 17 Javanese villages

C.6 Post-hoc comparisons (Scheffe test) of possessions 209 score means for land-controlling groups

C.7 Categorical groups for logit analysis 210 C.8 Participation in nonagricultural wage labour 211 C.9 Mean wages and labour days worked, nonagricul- 212

tural and agricultural wage labour, dry season 19901 C. 10 Trade and industry activities 213 C. 11 Work participation rates by class 214 C.l2 Pre-harvest labour use by task, North Subang 1979 215

and 1990 dry seasons (person-hours per hectare) C.l3 Pre-harvest labour use by task, East Subang 1990 216

x List of Tables

dry season (hours per hectare) C14 Pre-harvest labour use by task, South Subang 1978 217

and 1990 dry seasons (hours per hectare) C.l5 Crosstabulation of ceblokan arrangements by class 218

category of farmer and worker, South Subang C.16 Educational attainment of rural population 10 years 219

of age and older, West Java, Java, Indonesia and study villages

C.17 Educational attainment levels for residents ten years 220 of age and older

List of Figures

3.1 Agrarian Density and Land Ownership 46 3.2 Agrarian Density and Landlessness 47 3.3 Income Sources For Landless Agricultural Labourers 63 5.1 Flow of consumption loans within and between 178

classes following partial harvest failure, East Subang

B.l Real Hoeing Wages in Java, 1976-1990 200 B.2 Real Tranplanting Wages in Java, 1976-1990 201

xi

Preface

This book is a revised version of my dissertation. I would like to thank the editors of the series, Peter Nolan and Malcolm Falkus, for the chance to present my results and views to a wider audience.

The research on which this book is based was funded by the Board of Graduate Studies of Cambridge University, the Cambridge Political Economy Society and Wolfson College. Additional financial support for fieldwork in Indonesia was provided by the US Agency for International Development and the Ellen McArthur Fund. I am grateful to Michael Hammig, then with USAID, Jakarta, for his constant encouragement and support. Thanks are also due to the Pusat Penelitian Sosial Ekonomi Pertanian (PSE) for serving as my official host in Indonesia, and to Mohamad Saat of the Central Bureau of Statistics in Jakarta for his patience with my many queries.

This book could not have been written without the practical assistance and insightful comments of John Sender. I have also learned much from comments given by Terry Byres, Peter Kenmore, Mushtaq Khan, David McKendrick, Peter Nolan, Gabriel Palma and Rizal Ramli at various stages of the book's preparation. I alone, however, am responsible for all remairing errors of fact and interpretation.

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