Environmental and Sustainability Issues of Indonesia Agriculture

Agriculture in Indonesia intensifies from the swidden to very intensive systems and expands rapidly, including tosteep slopes and peatland areas. These have implications to the environment and the system's sustainability.Cereal and pulses-based farming systems uses moderate amount of chemicals and thus poses little threats to waterquality. However, these systems encroach into steepland accelerating erosion and depleting soil fertility. Intensivevegetable farming applies around 50 Mg/ha of barnyard manure, 300 kg/ha of N, and high rates of pesticides,posing a threat to water quality in the downstream areas. Plantation develops very rapidly, including to forest andpeatland areas. Conversion, to plantation crops, of forest (with 132300 Mg C/ha) decreases, but of shrub (with1540 Mg C/ha) and Imperata grassland (with < 5 Mg C/ha) increases the carbon stock to 3050 Mg/ha. Thetraditional tree-crop-based agriculture, characterized by a mixture of several species, reduces erosion and maintainsrelatively high carbon stock and biodiversity. Lowland rice (paddy) system, currently covering around 7.9 millionha area, has been practiced sustainably for thousands of years. Despite providing food security and variousenvironmental services, this system is under tremendous pressures of conversion to industrial and settlement areas.Meanwhile, some 20 million ha peatland of Indonesia is being converted at a rate of 1.3% annually for agricultureand silviculture. The carbon-rich land rapidly emits carbon once it is cleared and drained. Indonesian agriculturaldevelopment is challenged by the demand to keep a high level of production with minimal negative impacts to theenvironment. This can be achieved by prioritization of low carbon stock land for agricultural expansion,rationalization of fertilizer application, minimization of intensive agricultural expansion to steepland, andsafeguarding paddy field from conversion

Soil and Carbon Conservation for Climate Change Mitigation and Enhancing Sustainability of Agricultural Development

Agricultural sector is a sector which is vulnerable to climate change and a source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Therefore, besides the need for adaptation, agriculture has a potential to mitigate the climate change. This paper discusses the adaptation and mitigation of agriculture to the changing climate through soil and carbon conservation. Various soil conservation technological innovations on mineral soils potentially increase carbon stocks and subsequently improve soil physical and chemical properties and activities of living soil organisms. Conservation of peat soil basically reduces the rate of decomposition of organic matter or GHG emissions and also prolongs the lifespan of the peat. Soil and carbon conservation aimed to answer a variety of local issues such as sustainable agriculture and global issues such as reduction of GHG emissions from agricultural land. Rehabilitation of degraded peat shrub and peat grassland to agricultural land potentially provides significant carbon conservation and economic benefits. Evaluation of land status, land suitability, technology readiness, financial and institutional supports are the prerequisites needed to rehabilitate the abandoned land into productive and higher carbon storage lands

Kebutuhan dan Ketersediaan Lahan Cadangan untuk Mewujudkan Cita-Cita Indonesia sebagai Lumbung Pangan Dunia Tahun 2045

Arable land availability for agricultural extensification is a determining factor to achieve Indonesia's food self-sufficiency and to become the world food supplier in 2045. This study aimed to evaluate land reserves for future agricultural development. Spatial analysis was conducted using land cover map, peatland distribution map, indicative map of suspension of new permits, forest status map, licensing map, and agricultural land use recommendation map. The land assumed to be potentially available should be (i) idle land covered by shrub as well as bare land, (ii) agronomically suitable for agriculture, (iii) within the designated area of non-forest uses (APL), conversion production forest (HPK), or production forest (HP), (iv) outside the moratorium area, and (v) outside the licensed area. Analysis results show that out of 29.8 million hectares of idle land, only about 7.9 million hectares are potentially available for future agricultural extensification. The available potential land area is much less than that required to meet the self-sufficiency target and to become the world food storage by 2045, i.e. of 5.3 million hectares for rice crop, shallot and sugar cane, and about 10.3 million hectares for upland rice, maize, soybean, peanut, mungbean, sugar cane, shallot, cassava, and sweet potato. Therefore, the main strategies to take are intensification of existing agricultural land and a strict control of agricultural land conversion

Improving Agricultural Resilience to Climate Change Through Soil Management

Climate change affects soil properties and hence crop growth. Several soil management practices potentially reduce vulnerability to unfavorable climate conditions. This paper reviews how climate change affects soil properties and how should soil management be tailored to increase adaptation capacity to extreme climatic conditions. The main symptoms of climate change such as the increase in the global atmospheric temperature, unpredictable onset of the wet and dry seasons and excessive or substantial decrease in rainfall are unfavorable conditions that affect crop growth and production. Several approaches, singly or a combination of two or more measures, can be selected to adapt to the climate change. These include conservation tillage, vegetative and engineering soil conservation, mulching, water harvesting, nutrient management, soil amelioration and soil biological management. Management of soil organic matter is very central in adapting to climate change because of its important role in improving water holding capacity, increasing soil infiltration capacity and soil percolation, buffering soil temperature, improving soil fertility and enhancing soil microbial activities. Organic matter management and other soil management and conservation practices discussed in this paper are relatively simple and have long been known, but often ignored. This paper reemphasizes the importance of those practices for sustaining agriculture amid the ever more serious effects of climate change on agriculture

Land Use Change and Recommendation for Sustainable Development of Peatland for Agriculture: Case Study at Kubu Raya and Pontianak Districts, West Kalimantan

Peatland is an increasingly important land resource for livelihood, economic development, and terrestrial carbon storage. Kubu Raya and Pontianak Districts of West Kalimantan rely their future agricultural development on this environmentally fragile peatland because of the dominance (58% and 16% area, respectively) of this land in the two districts. A study aimed to evaluate land use changes on peatland and to develop strategies for sustainable peatland use and management for agriculture. Time series satellite imageries of land use and land cover, ground truthing, and statistical data of land use change were analyzed for generating the dynamics of land use changes in the period of 1986-2008. Field observation, peat sampling, and peat analyses of representative land use types were undertaken to assess peat characteristics and its agricultural suitability. The study showed that within 22 years (1986-2008), the area of peat forests in Kubu Raya and Pontianak Districts decreased as much as 13.6% from 391,902 ha to 328,078 ha. The current uses of the peatland in the two districts include oil palm plantation (8704 ha), smallholder rubber plantation (13,186 ha), annual crops (15,035 ha), mixed cropping of trees and annual crops (22,328 ha), and pineapple farming (11,744 ha). Our evaluation showed unconformity of the current uses of peatland with regulations and crops agronomic requirements such as peat thickness and maturity, rendering unsustainability. This study recommends that expansion of agriculture and plantation on peatland areas be limited over idle land within the agricultural production and conversion production forest areas. About 34,362 ha (9.7%) of uncultivated log-over forest and shrubs can potentially be developed for agriculture. Peat soils with the thickness of >3 m should be allocated for conservation or forest protection due to low inherent soil fertility and high potential greenhouse gas emissions if converted for agriculture

Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Land Use Issues Related to the Use of Bioenergy in Indonesia

Biofuel use is intended to address the ever-increasing demand for and scarcer supply of fossil fuels. The recent Indonesia government policy of imposing 10% mixing of biodiesel into petroleum-based diesel affirms the more important biofuel role in the near future. Palm oil, methane from palm oil mill effluent (POME) and animal wastes are the most prospective agricultural-based biofuels. The production and use of palm oil is interlinked with land use and land use change (LULUC), while the use of methane from POME and animal wastes can contribute in reducing emissions. The current European Union (EU) and the potential United States (US) markets are imposing biodiesels' green house gas (GHG) emission reduction standards (ERS) of 35% and 20%, respectively relative to the emissions of petroleum-based diesel based on using the lifecycle analysis (LCA). EU market will increase the ERS to 50% starting1 January 2017, which make it more challenging to reach. Despite controversies in the methods and assumptions of GHG emission reduction assessment using LCA, the probability of passing ERS increases as the development of oil palm plantation avoid as much as possible the use of peatland and natural forests. At present, there is no national ERS for bioenergy, but Indonesia should be cautious with the rapid expansion of oil palm plantation on existing agricultural lands, as it threatens food security. Focusing more on increasing palm oil yield, reducing pressure on existing agricultural lands for oil palm expansion and prioritizing the development on low carbon stock lands such as grass- and shrublands on mineral soils will be the way forward in addressing land scarcity, food security, GHG emissions and other environmental problems. Other forms of bioenergy source, such as biochar, promise to a lesser extent GHGemission reduction, and its versatility also requires consideration of its use as a soil ameliorant

Characteristics of Tropical Drained Peatlands and CO2 Emission Under Several Land Use Types

Converting of tropical rain forest into plantation and agriculture land uses has been claimed as a main factor that affects to global warming and climate change. In order to provide a comprehensive information of the issue, a field observation on  peat properties in relation to CO2 emission under several land use types had been done  at Lubuk Ogong Village, Pelalawan District, Riau Province from May 2011-April 2012. Five land use types, namely A. mangium, bare land, oil palm, rubber, and secondary forest have been selected in the study site. Observations were made for chemical and physical properties, above and below ground C-stock and CO2 emissions. The results showed a higher variation of peat depth and a below ground C-stock was almost linearly with a peat depth. Below ground C-stock for each land use was around 2848.55 Mg ha-1, 2657.08 Mg ha-1 5949.85 Mg ha-1,  3374.69 Mg ha-1, 4104.87 Mg ha-1 for secondary forest, rubber, oil palm, bare land, and A. mangium, respectively. The highest above ground C-stock observed on a secondary forest was 131.5 Mg ha-1, followed by the four years A. mangium 48.4 Mg ha-1, the 1-2 years A. mangium 36.6 Mg ha-1, and the 4 years A. mangium 34.4 Mg ha-1. While, CO2 emissions in the study sites were 66.58±21.77 Mg ha-1yr-1, 66.17±25.54 Mg ha-1yr-1, 64.50±31.49 Mg ha-1yr-1, 59.55±18.30 Mg ha-1yr-1, 53.65±16.91 Mg ha-1yr-1 for bareland, oil palm, secondary forest, A. mangium, and rubber, respectively. [How to Cite: IG Putu Wigena, Husnain, E Susanti, and F Agus. 2015. Characteristics of Tropical Drained Peatlands and CO2 Emission under Several Land Use Types. J Trop Soils 19: 47-57. Doi: 10.5400/jts.2015.20.1.47][Permalink/DOI: www.dx.doi.org/10.5400/jts.2015.20.1.47]&nbsp

Impact of urbanization trends on production of key staple crops

Urbanization has appropriated millions of hectares of cropland, and this trend will persist as cities continue to expand. We estimate the impact of this conversion as the amount of land needed elsewhere to give the same yield potential as determined by differences in climate and soil properties. Robust spatial upscaling techniques, well-validated crop simulation models, and soil, climate, and cropping system databases are employed with a focus on populous countries with high rates of land conversion. We find that converted cropland is 30–40% more productive than new cropland, which means that projection of food production potential must account for expected cropland loss to urbanization. Policies that protect existing farmland from urbanization would help relieve pressure on expansion of agriculture into natural ecosystems

Fostering a climate-smart intensification for oil palm

Oil palm production in Indonesia illustrates the intense pressure that exists worldwide to convert natural ecosystems to agricultural production. Oil palm production has increased because of expansion of cultivated area rather than due to average-yield increases. We used a data-rich modelling approach to investigate how intensification on existing plantations could help Indonesia meet palm oil demand while preserving fragile ecosystems. We found that average current yield represents 62% and 53% of the attainable yield in large and smallholder plantations, respectively. Narrowing yield gaps via improved agronomic management, together with a limited expansion that excludes fragile ecosystems, would save 2.6 million hectares of forests and peatlands and avoid 732 MtCO2e compared with following historical trends in yield and land use. Fine-tuning policy to promote intensification, along with investments in agricultural research and development, can help reconcile economic and environmental goals