The
farmer family consists of you the farmer,
your wife and your children. Each of the family member has a different view about this
problem.
First, assign the roles to
your group. Take note that each family member will have a role to play
in this activity. There will be some family members who will support
the idea to modernize and there will be family members who are against
the idea. Make sure that you have roughly the same number of people
who agree and disagree.
You
will now select one of the profiles from the two below for this task.
You will make your decisions based on the profile you have chosen.
Once chosen, you will stick with this profile for the entire WebQuest.
| Profile
A: Budi Satria
“When I first
came here, you couldn’t see the sky.” Budi Satria gestures
skyward as he remembers his first days here to build a new
home for his family more than twenty years ago. In those days,
Sawadah in Central Java was covered with tall trees - trees
that were fast being felled by loggers. When Budi arrived, his
family built and farmed on the freshly clear-cut land. They
had no legal right to be there, but they had nowhere else to
go. The Satria family and the other new settlers struggled to
survive, making the best of what they had. They produced all
that they consume and they had little surplus to sell for
monetary income. The wife and his children would help in the
fields and they could not afford to hire helpers. The tiny
squatter village had no electricity, no telephone service, and
no paved roads, none of the amenities commonly found in rural
Java. Technically the village had no right to exist. The
farmers did not hold title to the land they occupied. The
Satria's had a stream near their fields where they would
occasional catch fish to supplement their diet. “It’s an
additional income source. Besides selling the fish to our
neighbours, we can go down to the town center and sell there.
It’s one way we can earn cash,” says Budi, who then adds
with a smile, “other than that, it’s also a source of our
daily food, for example, if I crave fish, I don’t need to
buy canned or dried fish because I can just get it from the
stream.”
|
| Profile
B: Suparno Rajah
"My father left
me these fields. He owned these lands since he was my
age." Suparno mentioned casually as he pointed at his 125
hectares of rice fields. "My family came to Banjanegara 4
generations ago. My great grandfather was only a labourer on
the fields but my grandfather was a very successful
businessman and he bought these lands when he retired."
Suparno recounts his family history. Today, Suparno's farm
employs 20 workers who would help him with the rice
cultivation. He hardly has to work in the farms and he
produces enough rice to sell them for a handsome profit. It is
only when the weather becomes too dry or too wet that his
harvest will fall. As a result, his income will decrease with
each poor crop of rice. Suparno had sent both his
children for education at Semarang, the largest nearby city.
They have returned to the fields to help now that they have
completed their studies. |
As the head of the
household, your role is to listen to your wife and children's
ideas and make a decision based on these ideas. But before you can do
that, you have to find out what green revolution is about. What
types of irrigation can you use? What are high yielding varieties? What
are the costs of chemical fertilizers?
The
family member who does not welcome technology has to find evidence and information to show that adopting
modern technology might have negative impacts. For example, he/she may
bring up negative economic and environmental impacts
The
family member who strongly believe that technology will improve their
farming practice have to find information and evidence to show the
beneficial effects of green revolution. For example, improvement
to yields, higher productivity, higher income, etc.
After
researching on these aspect, work in your groups to discuss your
decision. At this point, your group will also decide on how you can
present your decision on a PowerPoint presentation. You may use this graphic
organiser
to help you in your decision making process.
