THE 10 women and five men joked as they worked, putting handfuls of brown soil into thousands of polythene bags which would contain tinjang seedlings. They were working on a plot of idle fishpond land on the edge of the coast, ignoring the scorching heat of the day.

They spoke in a mix of Javanese and Madurese, talking about Mukarim. Subagyo, 25, and Sutikno, 23, smiled as they heard the workers discussing the achievement of their f