This paper’s working hypothesis is that the indigenous farming practices of Timorese farmers are those most suitable and adaptable with regard to these farmers’ circumstances. Intensive farming and the acceleration of land conversion in Java lead to a reduction in favorable cropland and the degradation of soil biology. To meet the demand for food production, unfavorable areas outside Java, including marginal semi-arid areas on Timor Island, East Nusa Tenggara province, have become an important option. Unfortunately, the national crop production policy has paid less attention to the specific biophysical characteristics of the region and how local people have adapted to the diverse marginal environment. We review the literature in the areas of soil nutrition retention and soil biology, vegetation/crop diversity, and farming practices/management, including local wisdom on soil management. This paper highlights that the values of the chemical parameters of the soils in question are varied, but generally range from low to high. The existence of beneficial micro-organisms is important both for improving soil fertility and due to their association with local vegetation/crops. Traditional farming practices, such as the local agroforestry of Mamar, have effectively preserved the existence of micro-organisms that promote conservation practices, crop/vegetation diversity, and sustainable agriculture. We recommend that the expansion of croplands and crop production into marginal semi-arid areas needs to be considered and adapted while taking into consideration sustainability and environmentally sound traditional practices.
Risk and uncertainty in grain crop production are common in marginal semi-arid environments, such as East Nusa Tenggara province. Growing root and tuber crops in a mixed-cropping system is one of the strategies developed by smallholder farmers to substitute food grains and minimize risk. Nevertheless, root and tuber crops are not prioritized for food production systems since food crops in Indonesia are based more on grain and wetland rice production systems. This paper reviews cassava crops, which are widely cultivated by smallholder farmers. This paper contributes to understanding the roles of cassava for smallholder farmers, the diversity of the cassava germ plasm, the progress made to increase cassava productivity, and the potency of cassava crops to improve farmers’ incomes. This paper highlights that, in the low and erratic rainfall of dominant semi-arid regions, the development of cassava is pivotal to secure the harvest of food crops or food availability and income generation for marginal farmers.
In the semi-arid archipelago region of East Nusa Tenggara (ENT), food security and sovereignty have been long discourse and challenge. During 2019, drought and recent locust invasive have deteriorated and destabilize food security in the region. The Pandemic Covid-19 affects inter-islands transportation, agribusiness and remittances that limit people’ access to food. This paper explores food crops diversity in the semi-arid region and how it can be managed to minimize impact of pandemic’ disruption. We critic the policy of “business scale” to be implemented in the mosaic and marginal environment and provides dialogue of “small but secure” grounded in the Indigenous Knowledge. “Development started from periphery” as a new paradigm in National development should also gain momentum in shaping agricultural development in archipelago, strengthening food security and sovereignty and limited or minimize escalating impact of pandemic. Limited access to the global food market during pandemic should be a good lesson learnt in promoting and developing indigenous/local food crops, keeping its diversity and conserving natural resources.
This study focuses on land cover and land management changes in relation to food security and environmental services in a semi-arid area of East Nusa Tenggara (ENT) – Indonesia. The study was conducted in Central Sumba District of ENT Province. Classification and regression tree (CART) for land cover classification has been analyzed using machine learning techniques using Google Earth Engine. A survey with Focus Group Discussion (FGD) and followed with in-depth interviews were conducted for primary data collection involving a total of 871 respondents. The Socio-economic data analyzed statistics descriptively and non-parametric tests. The study showed that: 1). There has been a substantial land use change during the devo-lution era that has both positive and negative implications for food security and envi-ronmental services. 2). There has been population pressure in the fertile or agricultur-al land as the direct impact of the development of city infrastructures; and 3). Nation-al intervention through the Food Estate program has fostered and shaped land use change and land management in Central Sumba District. The study highlights the importance that the devolution spirit should help to well manage the limited ara-ble/agricultural land in dominated semi-arid to ensure food security and environment services.
Despite policies inplemented to minimise Swidden Agriculture (SA) practices, it remains in semi-arid areas of Timor Island. A study of SA was conducted in Manikin Watershed (MW) of West Timor during 2017 to 2019 in oder to understand the nature of SA using Agro-ecosystems approach and to analyse the strengths of SA for sustainable upland farming management. The research applied survey method in data collection. Qualitative data analysed using thematic analysis descriptively and mapping spacial analysis using open access of SAGAGIS. The results showed that Agro-ecosystem characteristics of SA at MW have characterised by Low Productivity, Low Stability, High Equitability, High Adaptability, and High Autonomous. High adaptability and some important components which are suits with resource poor farmers becomes the main reasons why upland farmers keep practicing SA. The strengths of SA lies on the farmers’ perception that SA as an adaptive and suitable system of semi-arid upland farmers’ circumstances: saving labour, only need simple equipments, easy to applied, no external inputs used, fertilize the soil/crops, and harvest guarantee for at least one food crop. The SA have strengths to be improved and developed as a productive and sustainable farming model that suitable for semi-arid upland communities.
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