Revisiting Indigenous Wisdom of Javanese Pranata mangsa. Comment on Zaki et al. Adaptation to Extreme Hydrological Events by Javanese Society through Local Knowledge. Sustainability 2020, 12, 10373

Abstract

This comment is on a paper by Zaki et al., who examined whether an effective agricultural system can be attained through the local wisdom of Pranata mangsa and its relationship to contemporary efforts in climate change adaptation, as positing Pranata mangsa as a strategy for recovery from natural disasters. In particular, the paper addresses the site-selection methodology of the four sample cities selected in their study of severe hydrological events by assessing the local and scientific knowledge. Pranata mangsa (the arrangement of seasons) is a local knowledge based on a calendrical system utilized historically by Javanese peasant farmers in conducting their agricultural activities. This indigenous wisdom is also employed by traditional fishermen to guide them not only in capturing fish and other aquatic animals but also in predicting the type of seafood they might gather. Although native Javanese people possess and maintain their own calendrical system based on a combination of solar and lunar calendars, Pranata mangsa is solely based on the former and is verbally passed on from one generation to the next. The literature has confirmed that, by combining this local wisdom and scientific data, the Javanese community has a better resilience in adapting to extreme hydrological events that occur as a consequence of global warming and climate change.

1. Introduction

Global warming and climate change have an impact on the agricultural sector, particularly in developing countries [1]. It is essential for the government, policymakers, and farmers to implement mitigation strategies and acquire sustainable solutions at the onset of natural disasters and extreme events [2,3]. One such strategy is employing local knowledge and wisdom. Among the indigenous Javanese farmers in Indonesia, a solar-based agricultural calendrical system called Pranata mangsa (the arrangement of seasons) has been employed for several millennia [4,5]. Zaki et al. (2020) provided excellent coverage on how native Javanese farmers plan and adjust in response to various extreme hydrological events by resorting to the local wisdom of Pranata mangsa [6]. Their study is in harmony with the UNESCO’s Local and Indigenous Knowledge Systems (LINKS) program that promotes local and indigenous wisdom and its admittance to policies and engagements associated with sustainable development, climate change adaptation, and natural disaster mitigation [7]. This comment addresses the article’s methodology of site selection that potentially masks the lurking spatial patterns at play in adapting to climate change and the efforts of planning for disaster recovery in connection with the classical version of Pranata mangsa.

2. Site-Selection Methodology and the Four Cities’ Climate Comparison

When discussing the study area in the framework of adapting to severe hydrological events by means of the Javanese local knowledge Pranata mangsa, Zaki et al. (2020) designated four Javanese cities in their sample studies: one town in West Java (Indramayu), two in Central Java (Sleman and Sukoharjo), and one in East Java (Ngawi) [6]. Since no explanation was given, the site-selection methodology remains opaque, and readers might wonder why the authors selected these four cities in particular. The best clue might be gleaned from Figure 3 of the paper, which displays histograms of the precipitation rate for the entire (annual) Pranata mangsa period. The data were gathered from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and cover 18 years (1998–2015). From these histograms, the four sample cities receive similar precipitation rates and exhibit only a small variation annually.

According to the Köppen–Geiger climate classification system, although predominantly belonging to Group A (tropical climates), the island of Java and its larger provinces themselves indicate several climate variations. In West Java, the most prevalent ones are Af and Am (tropical rainforest and tropical monsoon climates, respectively), whereas Central and East Java are dominated by Am and Aw, respectively. Aw indicates tropical savanna climate with dry winter characteristics. While the average precipitation for Af is at least 60 mm monthly, in Am, Aw, or As, a similar rate occurs during the driest months only [8,9].

Looking at these four cities in more detail, we discover some interesting facts. Indramayu in West Java has a tropical savanna climate (Aw) with little to moderate rainfall from May to November and heavy rainfall from December to April. The average rainfall is around 1700 mm annually. Sleman is actually located in the Special Administrative Region of Yogyakarta instead of Central Java; its northern border is shared with the latter. It features a tropical monsoon climate (Am), with a long wet season from October to June the following year and a shorter dry season from July to September. Its annual precipitation rate is around 2200 mm. Sukoharjo is a regency in Central Java that also has a tropical monsoon climate (Am), with little–moderate rainfall from June to October, and heavier rainfall from November to May. It also boasts an annual precipitation rate above 2000 mm. Ngawi is located in the western part of East Java, sharing a border with Central Java, midway between north and south. Similar to the previous two cities, Ngawi is also characterized by a tropical monsoon climate (Am), with heavy rains at the beginning and end of the dry season in the middle of the year. With its precipitation rate of 1600 mm annually, it is the driest city among the four. See

Table 1. A comparison of the four sample cities. We observe that Indramayu has a distinct climate (Aw) from the other three cities due to its geographical location as a coastal city, whereas the other three sample cities were located relatively far from the sea but exhibit an identical climate condition (Am) despite some variations in the elevation above mean sea level and annual precipitation rates.

City	Province	Elevation (m)	Climate	Annual Precipitation Rate (mm)
Indramayu	West Java	3	Aw	1700
Sleman	Yogyakarta	100–2500	Am	2200
	Special
	Administrative
	Region
Sukoharjo	Central Java	80–125	Am	2100
Ngawi	East Java	47–500	Am	1600

for a climate comparison of these four sample cities.

Historically, the classical version of the Pranata mangsa applies to the region between Mount Merapi and Mount Merbabu, where it acknowledges the tropical monsoon climate (Am) [4]. As active stratovolcanoes, both mountains are located around the same longitude—i.e., 110° E—and their peaks are only 10 km apart. The former is further south than the latter, and their latitude is around 7° S. Other sources mention that Pranata mangsa is also credible for the region between the Merapi–Merbabu mountain complex bordering the Special Region of Yogyakarta and Central Java and Mount Lawu, which borders Central and East Java provinces, e.g., [10]. Indeed, both Sleman and Sukoharjo are located between these three mountains, and Ngawi is around 50 km northeast of Mount Lawu, whereas Indramayu is nearly 400 km northwest of Mount Merapi. It would be interesting to investigate whether other areas between these two mountain compounds, as well as other places in Java with similar climatic features to this southeast region of Central Java, exhibit robust characteristics of Pranata mangsa. The former includes Boyolali [11], Klaten, Surakarta (Solo), Karanganyar, and the northern portion of Wonogiri. The latter might comprise Cirebon, Majalengka, Kuningan, or North Sumedang in West Java, as well as Ponorogo [12], Blitar, Malang, Madiun, Trenggalek, or Bondowoso in East Java. Other regions have also been studied, e.g., Yogyakarta [13,14], Magelang [15], and the Dieng Plateau, a volcanic terrain with ancient temples located about 30 km north of Wonosobo [16].

As we can observe in Table 1, the geographic variation among the sites contributes to the disparity in hydrological events, such as the annual precipitation rate and overall climate condition in general. When concluding the numbers of drought and flood events from 1998 to 2015, Zaki et al. (2020) observed that the Pranata mangsa system is generally superior to the Gregorian calendar in mitigating the extreme precipitation events for the former, whereas it is generally less appropriate for the latter, except for Indramayu and Sleman, respectively [6]. Although the geographic and climatic variations do not affect their posed research questions and conclusion that both local wisdom and scientific knowledge can be employed simultaneously, it would be helpful to the readers if the authors could clarify their methodology for site selection. In their response to this comment, dated 5 July 2022, the authors acknowledged that the applicability of Pranata mangsa to other regions exhibiting similar climate characteristics is an interesting research topic and they are currently investigating it.

When implemented in cultivating rice (Oryza sativa) and its accompanying secondary plants (palawija), such as soybean (Glycine max) or corn (Zea mays), Pranata mangsa is sensitive to local weather systems and atmospheric conditions, alongside the longer-term and geographically-dependent climate characteristics. In addition to precipitation rates, weather elements—such as air temperature, air pressure, humidity level, ultraviolet radiation index, cloud coverage, wind direction and speed, and fog formation—affect vegetation well-being and influence its successful production during harvest seasons. Hence, marrying indigenous wisdom and scientific knowledge is not only preferable but also necessary, particularly after climate change, for local Javanese farmers who would like to preserve the Pranata mangsa tradition and embrace contemporary agriculture techniques simultaneously. It would certainly be advantageous for mitigating efforts in anticipating and coping amid extreme hydrological events and other catastrophic natural disasters.

3. On Ethnic Groups, Java, and Cicadidae

Other comments do not influence the research questions and conclusion, but they are worth resolving and discussing. First, there are other predominant ethnic groups residing in Java in addition to the native Sundanese and Javanese, and the amalgamated Betawi: Madurese and Chinese Indonesians [17].

Second, when referring to the 13th largest island in the world in terms of area rank, the authors used “Jawa”, the island’s name in Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia), whereas it should be “Java” in English. This might confuse international readers. Additionally, “Jawa Tengah” and “Jawa Timur” should also be translated and written as “Central Java” and “East Java”, respectively.

Third, Zaki et al. (2020) also mentioned that the insect family Cicadidae, the true cicadas, feature in the rainy season (rendheng) with its appealing sound [6]. The cicada species that Javanese farmers encounter might be the Tacua speciosa or Purana tigrina groups, which are commonly found not only in Java but also in other parts of Southeast Asia [18]. In Indonesia, cicadas’ sound usually appears at the end of the wet season, a clear sign that the dry season is around the corner and the rain will stop. Table 2 in their paper lists cicadas’ acoustic signals in March, whereas the transitional season from the wet to dry seasons is usually around the end of March and April, cf. [19]. We cannot be sure whether the shifting appearance of cicadas is due to global warming and climate change or something else. After all, the global temperature on Earth has been steadily increasing ever since the advent of the Industrial Revolution at the end of the 19th century. On the other hand, Zaki et al. (2020) merely reported the appearance of cicadas based on native Javanese farmers’ observations, as recorded in the cycle of Pranata mangsa, and not necessarily as a scientific “fact” in the contemporary sense [6].

In subtropical regions such as Korea, cicadas mostly emerge in late June through August annually. Although there are nearly 3400 extant species of cicadas worldwide, periodical cicadas that emerge altogether once every 13–17 years are only found in the eastern part of the United States. They usually appear from late April through early May [20,21]. The effect of climate change and global warming, as well as the use of insecticides, in the possible temporal shifting in the appearance of cicadas in many parts of the world, might be an interesting research topic to investigate, particularly in the context of sustainability in agriculture practices, cf. [22].

4. Conclusions

We have briefly discussed topics related to the Javanese local knowledge of Pranata mangsa in this comment. In particular, we have given thoughtful attention to Zaki et al.’s methodology of site selection for the application of Pranata mangsa and demonstrated that the city of Indramayu possesses distinct geographical and climate characteristics compared with the other three selected cities. While providing a perspective on the four sample cities considered in their study of the Pranata mangsa, we propose that Zaki et al. and other researchers investigate other regions with similar climate characteristics to the region where the classical Pranata mangsa was initially inaugurated. By considering various hydrological events and bioclimatological aspects in the context of local wisdom and scientific knowledge, the results might reveal whether Pranata mangsa is still robustly reliable. If it is not—which might be the case due to global warming and climate change—then such considerations may inform how we can assist native Javanese farmers in preserving Pranata mangsa while simultaneously welcoming modern technology in their agricultural practices.

As the authors indicated in their response, although the number of studies pertinent to indigenous knowledge has been steadily increasing, there is still little research that integrates it with scientific data. Furthermore, an analysis of its long-term applicability is also an interesting research area. Hence, this proposal might open a path to the possible adjacent novel research avenues. A possible temporal shift in the appearance of cicadas might be a consequence of global warming and climate change, deserving special attention from entomologists, ecologists, sustainability scientists, and even healthcare professionals. We also hope that this comment will stimulate further discussion and future collaboration on related or different topics.