Abstrack:
Farmers are good observers of their own habitat. Ilmu tit?n (observable-memorable science) and pranata mangsa (Javanese cosmology) are the products of Javanese farmers? meticulous observations and experiences over time. Those products have been marginalized since the introduction of the Green Revolution technological package, though some groups of farmers have preserved ?local science? as a basis for their cultivation practices. In recent decades, farmers have had to struggle to survive because of ongoing, unusual risks in their environment. The reality of global warming, the increasing variability of climate, and the occurrence of extreme events caused by climate change have created unexpected consequences and challenges to their conventional ways of cultivating crops. Could they rely on their ?science? and conventional ways of farming to cope with these risks? A number of rice farmers in Indramayu Regency, West Java, argue that they have to reinterpret their local cosmology and reconsider their practices in their struggles to cope with these unusual risks. They admit that the introduction of ?agrometeorological learning? by a Dutch agrometeorologist in collaboration with Indonesian anthropologists from Universitas Indonesia through ?Science Field Shops? (2010?2014) has helped them significantly in developing their ?response farming to climate change?. The ?Science Field Shop? is an arena in which farmers carry out their own daily rainfall measurements and agrometeorological analysis, and discuss their findings monthly with fellow farmers and scientists. This presentation will examine farmers? agrometeorological learning as a case of continuous dialectics between scientific and local knowledge, as well as dialogues between farmers and scientists/scholars as a means of assisting farmers in improving their anticipation capability and decision making. Neither science nor local knowledge alone can help farmers.
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