Java Economy

More than two-thirds of the island's land area is under cultivation, and the primary food crop is wet rice. An elaborate irrigation network of canals, dams, aqueducts, and reservoirs has greatly contributed to the island's rice-growing capacity over the centuries. Other crops, also mostly grown in lowland areas on small peasant landholdings, are corn (maize), cassava, peanuts (groundnuts), soybeans, and sweet potatoes. Terraced hillslopes and irrigated rice paddies are familiar features of the landscape. Kapok, sesame, vegetables, bananas, mangoes, durian fruits, citrus fruits, and vegetable oils are produced for local consumption. Tea, coffee, tobacco, rubber, and cinchona (the source of quinine, and grown in the highlands of western Java); sugarcane and kapok (raised in the eastern part of the island); and coconuts are exported. Several of these cash crops at a time are usually grown on large family estates. Livestock, especially water buffalo, is raised primarily for use as draft animals. Salted and dried fish are imported, and fish farming is carried on in ponds and rice fields of central and western Java. Java produces most of the world's supply of quinine.

Oil is drilled mainly in the Arjuna fields off the northwestern coast; a natural-gas pipeline links these fields with Cilegon. There are petroleum refineries at Cilacap, Jepu, and Surabaya; there is also limited mining of manganese, sulfur, phosphate, gold, and silver. Small-scale manufactures include batik printing, iron founding, silverwork, agricultural tools, tanning, and the production of tiles and other ceramics. Larger industries consist of textile processing, rubber manufacturing, auto assembly, brewing, and factories producing shoes, paper, soap, cement, and cigarettes. The Jatiluhur Dam near Purwakarta is the largest in Indonesia. A well-developed rail and highway network links the principal cities. A government-owned radio network is headquartered in Jakarta, which is also the site of an international airport. Surabaya and Tanjungpriuk (near Jakarta) are the principal ports.