Transformation of Shifting Swamp-Rice Cultivation in an Iban Village of Sarawak, Malaysia

Abstract

Although wet rice is generally grown by sedentary cultivation in Southeast Asia, the Iban people in Sarawak have long practiced shifting cultivation of wet rice which is called padi paya (swamprice). Based on my survey and observations in an Iban village, this paper deals with the characteristics of this type of rice cultivation and its roles in the life of the villagers. During the fieldwork in the village, the changes in location of rice fields, frequency of shifting, rice-growing techniques, and soci-economic background of rice growing were investigated.
 The development of rice cultivation in the study area can be divided into three stages: the pioneer period from 1900 to 1950,the market-oriented period from 1950 to 1985,and the period of reduction from 1985 to the present. In the first period, rice fields were made through the reclamation of primary forests. As people were primarily concerned with obtaining land rights through this reclamation, they changed the location of their fields very frequently, every one or two years, by successive clearing of the forests. In the second period, when the rice price was rising, rice fields were expanded in order to increase production. Fields were abandoned after three consecutive years of cultivation, and new fields were opened in the secondary forest. In the third period, when off-farm job opportunities increased, rice fields were reduced in size and became concentrated near the longhouse. Although shifting cultivation was still practiced, many villagers cultivated the same fields for longer periods of four years or more.
 The Iban people's swamp rice cultivation has two distinctive characteristics: shifting cultivation and broadcast seeding. With these two methods, the size and location of rice fields can easily be changed in accordance with socio-economic changes, and shifting swamp-rice cultivation has thereby continued to support the life of the villagers.