JUST A LITTLE BIT OF SMOKE: 'I think it's all right for small farmers like me to use fire. It's just a little bit of smoke.' -- MR BAKINI (above), 33, a farmer in Jambi province. The ban on open burning makes no sense to the small farmer, who hopes to double his meagre income by clearing land to grow oil palm. -- ST PHOTO: AZHAR GHANI

The proud owner of the 1/2ha plot in Sumatra's Jambi province hopes to reap the rewards of his illegal handiwork in about four years, when the palms mature.

If all goes according to plan and market rates do not drop, the crop should earn small-time farmer Bakini, 33, a steady monthly income of around 1.5 million rupiah (S$250) from sales to palm oil factories.

That would more than double the monthly 1 million rupiah he currently gets from selling vegetables, which he also grows.

With a wife, a six-year-old son and aged parents to feed, Mr Bakini sees nothing wrong in using fire to clear the land.

Although he knows Indonesia has a law banning open-burning, he says: 'I think it's all right for small farmers like me to use fire. It's just a little bit of smoke.'

Fortunately for Singapore, which fears the imminent return of the choking haze which blanketed it last year and to varying degrees every year for the last decade, such land-clearing fires have yet to make a big comeback in Jambi.

Fires in the province and in neighbouring South Sumatra were largely responsible for the smoke that made eyes water in the Republic last year.

But Singaporeans banking on the Republic's ongoing anti-haze collaboration with Jambi to improve things this year should think again.

The project came about after Indonesia suggested that Asean countries work with some of its fire-prone regions.

In January, Singapore began working with the province to come up with a series of ambitious initiatives ranging from fire prevention to providing alternative livelihoods for potential slash-and-burn farmers.

However, despite a masterplan for the project having been drawn up and agreed to by Jambi Governor Zulkifli Nurdin, progress ground to a halt later in the year when Indonesia announced that it wanted the initiatives to be placed under a formal agreement between the two countries.

A draft agreement has been drawn up but has yet to be finalised and signed. With the burning season now well under way, it looks unlikely to help the situation this year at least.

'We're raring to go,' said Dr Muchtar Muis, deputy chief of the Muaro Jambi district where the plan is to be piloted.

'But we can't proceed without the agreement between the two governments.'

Still, this does not mean that nothing is being done in Jambi to tackle the haze problem, said the province's planning secretary Syahrasuddin.

He told The Straits Times that the provincial administrator has been working with the central government to boost Jambi's fire-fighting capabilities and to increase the public's fire-prevention awareness.

And Indonesian Environment Ministry official Abdul Razak said: 'We're optimistic that things will improve this year.'

Still, despite these reassurances, the haze outlook for Singapore this year is not looking good.

In the first three days of July, as the dry season got under way, Jambi registered about 70 hot spots, which hint at ground fires.

Last year, 266 hot spots were detected for the whole month of July. If the rate at which hot spots were detected in the first three days continues, this month's total could exceed 700.

And even if slash-and-burn farming came to a complete halt in Jambi, there would be no guarantee of clean air for Singapore or the rest of the region.

The province is just one part of the Indonesian problem, with annual forest fires across Sumatra and Kalimantan also casting a pall over the area.

azhar@sph.com.sg