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Farmers in Java Prepared to Fight for Pricey Peppers as Theft Rises
Olivia Rondonuwu | January 07, 2011

A farmer with an air gun guarding his chili farm in East Java on Friday. Chili theft has become more common with the price of the spice rising to as much as $11 a kilogram.(Antara Photo) A farmer with an air gun guarding his chili farm in East Java on Friday. Chili theft has become more common with the price of the spice rising to as much as $11 a kilogram.(Antara Photo)
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With sickles and slingshots in hand, farmers are guarding chili plants from thieves after prices for the much-loved spice jumped fivefold in the past year to boost inflation and worry the government.

Around-the-clock patrols for chili farmers in Kediri, East Java, have started as the price of the spicy ingredient reached around Rp 100,000 ($11) a kilogram, more expensive than beef and about a tenth of the regional minimum wage.

“Poor farmers are taking the whole family — their wife and children — to guard their chili fields,” said Sukoco, a farmer in Kediri, one of East Java’s biggest chili-farming areas.

“Now, villages are empty at night, while the fields are full of people,” he added.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization said on Wednesday that global food prices hit a record high last month.

Rising chili and rice prices helped push Indonesia’s annual inflation to a 20-month high near 7 percent in December, and spurred President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Trade Minister Mari Pangestu to urge households to plant foods such as chilies at home.

Farmers have previously conducted patrols when chili prices were on the rise, but this time, the price increase has alerted many to beef up security, including by doubling guards from 3 a.m. to 4 a.m. and 6 p.m. to 7 p.m., when some people leave the fields to pray.

Sukoco said farmers were opting for slingshots over sickles once they singled out thieves, mostly spotted when a chili shrub would shake unnaturally.

Thieves are responding by taking whole plants instead of picking each red pod.

 
Reuters