Pursuing resilience in indigenously engineered, yet vulnerable, Indonesian rice farming landscapes

In an era of cascading crises, from COVID-19 to economic recession to weather extremes, rice farming resilience—the capacity to endure socio-economic and environmental stresses due to hazards and structural vulnerabilities—was imperative for food security. Following these stressors, development programmes had focused on enhancing material capital and on expanding access to these assets. While these interventions had increased resilience, the contribution of non-material capital, such as the farmers’ relationships with other farmers and even with nonhuman entities such as the Divine, had not been properly unpacked, especially in indigenous landscapes. An expansive look at the complexities of ‘resilience’ and its context-specific drivers could provide new perspectives that could lead to resilience policy redesign. Using qualitative methods, this project studied indigenous rice farming in the engineered landscape of Bali, Indonesia. Subject to extreme water-related stressors and geological hazards, this location was also prone to socio-economic pressures such as out-migration, economic insecurity, ageing, over-tourism, and changing preferences among the youth. This project analysed the lived experiences of Balinese rice farmers, focusing on the conditions that built their affective relationships with human and nonhuman entities.