Tiwingan Villagers in Riam Kanan No Longer Farming Rice

Tiwingan, South Kalimantan, 24/12 (AntaranewsKalsel) - Tiwingan villagers in Banjar regency, South Kalimantan, are no longer farming or planting rice in recent years.

"Since a few years ago, villagers in Tiwingan in the mountainous area of Meratus could not manugal (rice farming), because of pests, such as wild boar, monkeys and langurs," said Juhri (71), resident in the upstream reservoir of Riam Kanan when answered AntaranewsKalsel who visit the village on Saturday.

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Therefore, many residents of the village and surroundings divert their livelihood to fisheries. "For those who have money are taking fishing business with kramba system or floating nets," he said.

Those who are doing fishery in Riam Kanan dam reaches thousands of families with varied business scale.

Fishes from Riam Kanan dam or in the Aranio sub-district not only marketed for the needs of residents of Banjar, but to other cities such as Banjarbaru and Banjarmasin.

While those who have no capital, they are fishing in public waters of the reservoir using rimpa (kind of net), said the father of eight children and nine grandchildren.

Other livelihood is tapping rubber for those who have a rubber plantation and processing in the form of codification, he said. According to him, not many residents of Tiwingan have rubber plantations.

"Thank God, now the price of rubber started to improve, so that the rubber farmers are not lazy although the results are not too much, which is about Rp50,000 for each tapping," said Juhri.

Riam Kanan dam not only for hydroelectric power plants (PLTA) and fishing, but also as a tourist attraction. While its waste water is used for irrigation for food crops, such as rice paddy.