The Agriculture before Independence

Here I found an article about the history of Agriculture in Indonesia from 19th century until the age before the Independence in 1945. I summarize the article of "Sejarah Pertanian Indonesia" from sejarahpertanian.blogspot.com

The Era of 19th Century
1811-1816 : In this period, a rebbelion happened, as a response to a system called 'land tax' introduced by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles. The rebbelion known as 'Perang Jawa' or 'Perang Diponegoro'. It was the dissapointment of the feudal lords which triggered the war and born the rebbelion of kingdom.

1830-1870: This is the era of cultuur stelsel forced by General Governor Johannes van den Bosch, where each villages must set aside 20% of the land to be planted by export commodities such coffees or sugar cane. Its yield were sold to colonial government in a fixed prices. For villagers who don't have or own a land need to work 75 days in a year for government. Practically, those rule became meaningless since most of agricultural area were obligated to plant the export commodities. The cultuur stelsel itself became the most exploitative era within the economical practice of Nederlands-Indië (We call it 'Hindia-Belanda'). I don't know whether there's a difference between VOC monopoly system and Government system, but it was said that the cultuur stelsel was even harder and ruthless, since there was a revenue target government much-needed. Farmers who had to sold their harvest to VOC now not only had to plant specified commodities but also sold the harvest with a fixed prices from government. Since then, the cultuur stelsel gave the biggest asset in the golden age of Nederlands-Indie Colonial Government from 1835 to 1940. For the advantages of this system, Van den Bosch awarded on December 25 1839 wit a title Graaf.

1870: The law of Agrarian born and contained within Agrarische Wet 1870. In this law the Erfpacht right was guaranteed for 75 years, and also guarantee the right owner to use the Eigendom right, and gave them a chance to use their land as a collateral loan. The Agrarische Wet 1870 was affected by private capital owners to make a deal with many big plantation in their colony, since in the cultuur stelsel era they could only rent the land.

1890 : This is the beginning of the Ethnic Politic, where socialist in Nederland act as an oposition. Since then, the public services are getting better, the chances to take an educational course are improving, and villages autonomy getting stronger.

The Era before The Independence (1900-1945)
1918: In this year, The General Agriculture Experiment Station or 'Balai Besar Penyelidikan Pertanian' (I don't know how to translate it in English for its first name, but then it was called Algemeen Proefstation voor den Landbouw) were built. Since 1949 it was changed into 'Jawatan Penyelidikan Pertanian' or it may be translated as The Bureau of Agricultural Investigation. In 1952 it was became 'Balai Besar Penyelidikan Pertanian' / General Agriculture Experiment Station (Algemeen Proefstation voor den Landbouw). For the next years its name still changing. In 1966 the name changed into 'Lembaga Pusat Penelitian Pertanian'. In 1980 as 'Balai Penelitian Tanaman Bogor'. In 1994 as 'Balai Penelitian Bioteknologi dan Sumberdaya Genetik Pertanian. From 2003 until present it is called 'Balai Besar Penelitian dan Pengembangan Bioteknologi dan Sumberdaya Genetik Pertanian' (BB-BIOGEN) or Indonesian Center for Agricultural Biotechnology and Genetic Resource Research and Development (ICABIOGRD).