Abstract
This report summarizes the results of a survey conducted in Kecamatan Malili, Wotu and Bua Ponrang of Kabupaten Luwu from December 1980 through January 1981. Many spontaneous and independent migrants, in addition to the governmental transmigrants, come to this region of low population density and clear agricultural land for themselves. The spontaneous migrants, most of whom are Torajanese and Buginese from the neighbouring Kabupaten, clear forest to make wet-rice fields (sawah), upland fields (ladang) or estates (kebun) for commercial crops. The process by which they adapt to the new environment and their impact on the native people were investigated.
The Torajanese migrants have a strong tendency to establish wet-rice fields in their settlements similar to those in their homeland, while the Buginese migrants have a wider adaptability which enables them to employ various methods of cultivation in their settlements. The Buginese migrants tend to grow commercial crops such as cengke (cloves) in addition to wet rice. The native people affected by the migrants have begun to open permanent fields for rice instead of practicing shifting cultivation. Their permanent rice fields are called sawah ladang, wet-rice fields derived from shifting-cultivated fields; they are not yet well enough established to be called ‘real’ wet-rice fields. In the migrant settlements, rice is usually cultivated first by dibbling without tillage, then by cangkul-tillage and transplanting after the fields have been bunded. Migrants intend eventually to adopt buffalo-ploughing in place of cangkul-tillage. The changes involved in this process of developing wetrice cultivation in the new agricultural settlements are discussed.
