Search

This paper will prove the existence of colloquial Makassar Indonesian (CMI) by showing its syntactic characteristics based on the use of personal pronoun affixes. This is very interesting and important because in general colloquial Indonesian languages are spoken in other cities in Indonesia, for example Jakarta, Manado, Ambon, etc. is a subsystem of the Indonesian language (hereinafter abbreviated as IND), but CMI is really a subsystem or subvariant of the Makassar language (MAK), the mother tongue of the Makassarese people. Therefore, it is not easy for Makassar newcomers to master this CMI. To master it, they must first learn the basic rules of MAK syntax. The fundamental thing in this case is the change in language typology, namely CMI has been proven to have adopted the V-S-O (Verb-Subject-Object) typology of MAK. Meanwhile, IND has the S-V-O (Subject-Predicate-Object) typology. This happened because there was language contact between MAK and Malay (now IND), a language which became the forerunner to the birth of IND as the national language and the state language of the Republic of Indonesia. In this case, at first Makassar city residents tried to use Malay, but with MAK syntactic interference. Gradually this form of interference became the entry point for the borrowing of the MAK syntactic subsystem in the IND speeches of Makassar city residents. IND utterances with the characteristics of MAK syntax then become the characteristics of CMI, which has now reached the level of integration and convergence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smallholders are responsible for a large share of global palm oil production. Yet, in Indonesia, the main palm oil producing country, smallholders' yields remain low. Better management practices, including short harvest interval (HI, the number of days between two harvest rounds), could help to raise smallholder yields. However, at present, HI is long in smallholder fields and the drivers underlying this phenomenon are poorly understood. We explored agronomic, socio-economic, and institutional factors that underlie harvesting practices in independent oil palm smallholder farming systems in Indonesia to assess scope for sustainable intensification through shorter HI and reduced harvest losses. Combining methods from agronomy and anthropology, we followed harvest interval of 950 farmers in six representative locations across Indonesia via farmer diaries over a period of two years to establish a correlation with yield. To quantify this relationship, we conducted post-harvest field measurements, and to explain which underlying factors impact HI we did qualitative interviews and surveys. The HI of smallholders in our study ranged from 10 to 39 days (average: 17-d). Half of the farmers followed long HI (>16-d). Key factors impacting HI include annual fresh fruit bunch (FFB) yield, total palm area per farmer, trusted labor availability, plantation accessibility, and FFB price. Farmers responded to low yield by prolonging HI to increase labor productivity and optimize labor and transportation costs. This study contributes to a better understanding of the relation between HI and yield in smallholder farming systems, by uncovering how socio-economic and institutional factors sometimes override agronomic considerations. Long HI can potentially lead to harvest loss from loose fruits and missed bunches, and reduce oil quality from overripe bunches. However, to obtain the benefits of shorter HI requires collective action and incentives along the supply chain to streamline the harvest and sale process. [Display omitted] • Timely harvesting of oil palm through short harvest interval (HI) can help to enhance oil quality and reduce harvest loss. • We studied agronomic and socio-economic drivers of HI for Indonesian smallholders via surveys, interviews and field audits. • The oil palm smallholders in our study had longer HIs than recommended to minimize harvest losses and optimize oil quality. • Farmers responded to low yield by prolonging HI to increase labor productivity and optimize labor and transportation costs. • To benefit from shorter HI requires yield-increasing measures, and collective action and incentives along the supply chain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]