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Chapter 2
Agro-ecological zones and farming systems


Agro-ecological zones

Most parts of the country have a wet humid tropics climate with a rainy season, the west monsoon, between October and March and a dry season, the southeast monsoon, between April and September. The annual rainfall ranges from about 1 500 to 3 000 mm. However, some parts of the country, i.e. the eastern part of West Nusa Tenggara and most of the East Nusa Tenggara provinces, have a drier climate with annual rainfall of about 1 000 mm or less in the three months period between December and February.

Most of the lowland rice and of the upland food crops are concentrated in Java. The areas of perennial crops are concentrated in the outer islands, mainly in Sumatera. Java accounts for slightly more than 50 percent of the harvested area of lowland rice and the average yields per hectare are higher than in the other regions. Java produces about 60 percent or more of the total rice production. More than half of the total area of most upland food crops, i.e. maize, groundnut, soybean, cassava, and sweet potato, are also concentrated in Java.

The majority of Indonesian farmers are smallholder, subsistence farmers cultivating small areas of land, particularly in Java. In 1983, 10.9 million households (52 percent) cultivated land areas of less than 0.5 ha and 8.1 million households (74 percent) lived in Java (Table 1). This situation remained almost unchanged at least until 1993 and although there is as yet no published census it is assumed that the proportion of smallholder farmers has not changed much. Java is predominant in the country's food crop production despite the fact that the amount of land owned by each household in Java is much smaller than in the outer islands. In general, the farm size in Java is about a quarter of a hectare or less per farm household, while in the outer islands it is about one hectare or more for each farm household. In new settlement schemes or transmigration areas in the outer islands, one hectare of food cropland plus two hectares of perennial cropland and a quarter hectare for the site of the farm house are granted to each migrant family. Many native people in the outer islands own larger areas of land, which they have inherited from their ancestors.

TABLE 1
Number of households and farm size

Island

Number of households


Less than 0.5 ha

More than 0.5 ha


1983

1993

1983

1993

Java

8 070

7 616

3 494

2 957

Sumatera

1 384

1 446

3 080

3 095

Bali & Nusa Tenggara

557

565

766

697

Kalimantan

242

280

965

867

Sulawesi

425

467

1 240

1 115

Maluku & Papua

204

228

306

256

Indonesia

10 882

10 602

9 851

8 987

Excluding Java

2 812

2 985

6 357

6 030

Source: CBS, 2003.

Farming systems

The farming systems practiced by Indonesian farmers can be classified into three major systems: lowland, upland and perennial crop farming systems.

The lowland farming system, with rice as the single crop, provides the staple food for the ever-growing population of Indonesia, a population that in early 2000 amounted to more that 200 million people. Lowland farming is a source of food, wealth and job opportunities for most of the Indonesian people living in rural areas. Irrigated lowland rice is the most appropriate system in terms of sustainability and year-to-year yield stability. High rates of fertilizer use and improved crop protection practices have contributed to the high yields of rice. In recent years, rice farming has become less attractive since the price has frequently fallen during peak harvest seasons and this has greatly reduced farmers' incomes. Considerable amounts of rice are now imported.

Upland farming is practiced mostly under rainfed conditions in the outer islands. Upland soils are dominated by highly weathered acid soils, Ultisols, Oxisols and Inceptisols, whose phosphorus deficiency is usually a major constraint to crop production. Upland areas are abundant in the country and have a high potential for agricultural development. To date these resources have been underutilized and their productivity remains low, partly due to inadequate fertilizer application. The low level of fertilizer use for upland farming is resulting in the depletion of soil nutrients in the upland crop areas (Santoso, 1996).

Perennial farming systems, practiced mostly in the outer islands, are sustainable under the inherently acid soils of low fertility in these areas. Rubber and oil-palm are the two major perennial crops, produced both in large estates and by smallholders. The large plantations are both government and privately owned. Because of the favourable income obtained from oil-palm, the area planted with oil-palm has increased significantly during the past ten to fifteen years and the total harvested area has reached more than four million hectares. Large areas of plantation crops are owned and managed by smallholder farmers. Unfortunately, due to a lack of knowledge of appropriate fertilization technology and the fact that fertilizers are sometimes not available at village level on time and of the right type, the use of fertilizers is inadequate and unbalanced in many plantations. If these farmers use fertilizers, they normally apply low, unbalanced rates, mostly just urea, and only for the food crops.

In addition to the above systems, a traditional shifting cultivation, the slash and burn system, is still practiced by some farmers, particularly in the remote areas on the islands outside Java. The system is characterized by the felling of old rubber trees or secondary forest, followed by burning and then planting new rubber trees mixed with food crops, generally upland rice and maize, for subsistence purposes. After two to three years of cultivation, when the rubber trees have started to cover the ground and the productivity of the food crops begins to decline, the shifting cultivators move to another area of land, waiting until the rubber trees are ready to be tapped. Under this system, the use of fertilizers is uncommon.

About 70 percent of the lowland rice area in Indonesia produces two crops per year. The first crop, the rainy season crop, is planted in November-December and harvested in January-February. The second crop, the dry season crop, is planted in February-March and harvested in May - June. The third crop in an annual rotation is usually one of the upland food crops, palawija crops, such as maize, soybean, groundnut and mungbean. This crop is planted in June-July and harvested in August-September. A very good irrigation system may permit a third lowland (flooded) rice crop to be grown. Since most fertilizers (urea and SP-36) are applied to lowland rice crops, they should reach village level before the rice-planting season, in October for the rainy season and in April for the dry season. Apart from maize, palawija crops such as soybean and mungbean are usually not fertilized since it is assumed that they benefit from the residual effects of fertilizers applied to the preceding (lowland) rice crops.


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