The Subak in Diaspora: Balinese Farmers and the Subak in South Sulawesi

The subak has a long history as an irrigators’ institution on Bali. It has also spread across Indonesia along with Balinese farmers who were resettled by colonial and post-colonial governments or who have migrated spontaneously since colonial times. While subaks have been much researched in Bali itself, little is known about subaks outside Bali. Luwu District in South Sulawesi is one of the areas where thousands of Balinese families settled in the last four decades. Based on research in this transmigration area, this paper analyzes the emergence and development of the subak in relation to the development of irrigation infrastructure of a state-built irrigation system. A comparison between two Balinese settlements in the same system shows that differences in infrastructural and managerial conditions and arrangements between parts of the irrigation system were major determinants of the institutional space allowed for the subak and ways in which the subaks developed

Adapting agricultural water use to climate change in a post-Soviet context: challenges and opportunities in southeast Kazakhstan

The convergence of climate change and post-Soviet socio-economic and institutional transformations has been underexplored so far, as have the consequences of such convergence on crop agriculture in Central Asia. This paper provides a place-based analysis of constraints and opportunities for adaptation to climate change, with a specific focus on water use, in two districts in southeast Kazakhstan. Data were collected by 2 multi-stakeholder participatory workshops, 21 semi-structured in-depth interviews, and secondary statistical data. The present-day agricultural system is characterised by enduring Soviet-era management structures, but without state inputs that previously sustained agricultural productivity. Low margins of profitability on many privatised farms mean that attempts to implement integrated water management have produced water users associations unable to maintain and upgrade a deteriorating irrigation infrastructure. Although actors engage in tactical adaptation measures, necessary structural adaptation of the irrigation system remains difficult without significant public or private investments. Market-based water management models have been translated ambiguously to this region, which fails to encourage efficient water use and hinders adaptation to water stress. In addition, a mutual interdependence of informal networks and formal institutions characterises both state governance and everyday life in Kazakhstan. Such interdependence simultaneously facilitates operational and tactical adaptation, but hinders structural adaptation, as informal networks exist as a parallel system that achieves substantive outcomes while perpetuating the inertia and incapacity of the state bureaucracy. This article has relevance for critical understanding of integrated water management in practice and adaptation to climate change in post-Soviet institutional settings more broadly