A Day in Argomulyo Village

Photos and words by Lutfi Retno Wahyudyanti

"We are the servants of our cows," Agus laughed while he harvested paddy. "Every day, we feed them, give them water, bathe them, and clean up their dung. They just stay in the shed and do nothing."

Agus ( 62 years old ) spends three to five days a week harvesting other people's rice fields with a group of fellow farmers. They are not paid in cash. Instead, the landowner provides snacks and allows them to take home the paddy straw to feed their cattle.

This is everyday life in Argomulyo, a village on the slopes of Mount Merapi in Yogyakarta. Many of the villagers no longer own enough land to support their families. Some have no farmland and rely on seasonal work on other people's fields. Throughout the year, they help plant rice, spread fertilizer, remove weeds, and harvest crops. Some of these jobs are paid, while others are based on mutual assistance, with payment coming in the form of food or fodder rather than money.

For Agus, farming has always been physically demanding and financially uncertain. Yet he continued because he wanted something different for his children. "I worked hard so my three children could go to school," he said. "I didn't want them to become farmers."

Like many young people in the village, Agus's children chose other careers. Some work as construction laborers, shopkeepers, or petrol station attendants in the city. Those with higher education have become teachers or civil servants. Across rural Java, farming is becoming a profession of the older generation.

Agriculture no longer offers a reliable income. The prices of rice, vegetables, and other crops often collapse during bumper harvests, while production costs continue to rise. Farmers spend more each year on fertilizer, pesticides, fuel, seeds, and labor. At the same time, climate change has made rainfall less predictable, increasing the risk of crop failure.

Some families sold their farmland to finance their children's university education or help them pursue careers outside agriculture, such as becoming police.

On Java, Indonesia's most densely populated island, many farmers cultivate less than 1,500 square meters of land. Others own no land at all and survive by working on other people's farms while taking on additional jobs whenever possible.

In Argomulyo, rice remains the preferred crop because it requires less maintenance than vegetables or fruit. Farmers can usually harvest three times a year. Each harvest produces around 12 to 20 sacks of unhusked rice, with each sack weighing about 25 kilograms. A landowner may earn between 5 and 8 million rupiah from one harvest. For many families, that is not enough to cover annual living expenses. Outside the planting season, farmers work as construction laborers, sell snacks, drive motorbike taxis, or take any available temporary jobs to get extra income.

As younger generations leave, the village itself is changing. Most of the remaining farmers are now over 50 years old. Their children have moved to cities, found work in factories, or become migrant workers overseas. As farming becomes less profitable, agricultural land is gradually being converted into houses, shops, and other developments.