Development of seed-fertilizer technology in Indonesian rice agriculture

The first part of this article discusses the development of research into rice varieties and the establishment of the seed multiplication system of the Indonesian government. The second part addresses the question to what extent farm households had access to chemical fertilizer and were inclined to use fertilizer on their rice crops. The argument is concentrated on technological aspects of rice production in Indonesia. The rest of the article discusses the question whether the supply of subsidized chemical fertilizers during the colonial period would have been the key to the development of rice agriculture in colonial Indonesia. If chemical fertilizer was too expensive, the first question to be answered is to what extent farmers used the available organic fertilizer on rice. -from Author