By Nyimas Laula, Sultan Anshori
” Before the tourist boom … what provided life to the Lembongan individuals was seaweed,” he said.
Still, seaweed farming is laborious work and less rewarding than tourist, especially as the pandemic has lowered need.
Farmers state the dried seaweed, predestined for processing and to be exported for usage in food, presently brings around 12,000 rupiah (80 U.S. cents) per kilo, supplying an income of up to $400 a month. That is just over half of what the exact same haul would have brought before the pandemic, JASUDAs Boedi approximated.
Puput Astawa, head of the Bali Tourism Board, said visitors were still required since “agriculture alone might not get Balis economy back to typical”.
NUSA LEMBONGAN, Indonesia (Reuters) – Before the coronavirus pandemic took its grip on Indonesia, the beautiful beaches of Lembongan island lapped by the Indian Ocean were dotted with sunbathing tourists from throughout the world.
Extra reporting and composing by Fathin Ungku; Editing by Ed Davies and Jane Wardell.
Now, with numerous visitors gone and the economy in tatters, residents are typically seen carrying baskets laden with seaweed up the shore amidst a shift back to previous methods of making a living.
” I feel sad due to the fact that we lost our jobs and now we have to start from scratch,” stated I Gede Darma Putra, 43, a local of Lembongan, who utilized to guide travelers as a dive master.
Like many locals on this speck of an island about 50 km (30 miles) off Bali, he and his wife Kadek Kristiani now wade through beautiful waters to gather seaweed growing on lines.
Bali typically attracts millions of visitors a year, lots of brought in by beaches in spots like Lembongan, however plans to reopen to foreign travelers have actually been delayed forever due climbing COVID-19 cases in Indonesia.
With many restaurants and bars shut on the island, drying seaweed fills the streets as tourist employees return to a market that waned a decade back, regardless of Indonesias status as the worlds second-biggest seaweed manufacturer behind China.
” Farmers are beginning to plant seaweed again,” stated Boedi Sarkana Julianto of Indonesias Natural Resources Network (( JASUDA), a seaweed farming non-governmental organisation.
” At first I was confused, questioning, what should I do?,” said Kadek, 34. “But along the method we found this work, planting seaweed … and earned some earnings to purchase food and things for our children.”
Wali Putra, a 50 year-old restaurant manager who has been farming seaweed most of his life, stated the pandemic reminded him of his youth.
,” said Kadek, 34. “But along the method we found this work, planting seaweed … and made some income to buy food and things for our children.”
But some locals, like teacher and seaweed farmer Wayan Ujiana, 51, are taking the pandemic as a lesson not to depend too much on tourist: “Dont forget to diversify your earnings, so when issues happen we do not collapse.”
($ 1 = 14,850.0000 rupiah).
