‘Curi-Curi Air’ dan Keikhlasan: Strategi Petani dalam Pengelolaan Air Irigasi di Desa Sei Beras Sekata Kecamatan Sunggal Kabupaten Deli Serdang

Abstract

This paper examinies farmers strategy in irrigation water management in Sei Beras Sekata, Sunggal District, Deli Serdang Regency. The focus of this study to examine how rice farmers face problems related to water conditions during the dry and rainy seasons. The water shortage issue indicates a link between irrigation water shortages. Meanwhile, in the rainy season the issues include waste in irrigation channels, pests and diseases, and the sharing of experiences and sincerity within institutions. The method use in this study is qualitative with an ethnographic approach. Fieldwork was conducted in March 2024 to September 2024. The writing of this report was delayed due to partcipating in the internship program, then compiling the internship report, compiling field notes, tidying up the draft, and searching for missing data, then a seminar on the results. The activeness of writing the report until the final writing took five months in August 2023 to February 2024. Data collection techniques were in the form of participant observation, in-depth interviews, and documentation. Key informants in the study were selected by snowballing and on going data analysis and writing down data from the interview recordings with verbatim transcripts written in field notes.

The results of this study indicate that there is conflict between farmers in Sei Beras Sekata Village. This conflict arises from irrigation water issues during the dry and rainy seasons. During the dry season, irrigation water decreases, resulting in insufficient water supply for all rice fields. Farmers engage in the practice of ‘stealling water’, and the perpetrators, or owners, of rice fields located in the lowland area. ‘Stealling water’ occurs at night. The ‘stealling water’ technique involves clearing and irrigating rice fields from other people’s rice fields. Fellow farmers are aware of this, but it does not lead to open conflict because the perpetrators always ensure that other rice fields near the irrigation water source do not lack water for their rice crops. The conflict that occurs tends to take the form of verbal warnings between farmers. Farmers changed in crop types is due to a damaged dams, preventing farmers from planting rice for six months. During the rainy season, farmers face problems such as waste, pests, and diseases. The strategy employed is collaboration between farmers and the Water Resources Managament Unit (P3A) to clean ip waste in irrigation channels. This research examines the reciprocity that occurs in both the dry and rainy seasons ‘farmers pay generously’ to the farmer organization and receive access to water in turn. The P3A uses its time and energy to work together to repair irrigation channels and address farmer complaints. Payment is made in cash or in the of harvested produce. Farmers share experiences in managing pests and diseases. Farmers have a survival strategy, namely borrowing money from rice mills.