Smallholding farmers’ resilience towards economic and ecological disruption of oil palm plantations

Abstract

Indonesian smallholder oil palm plantations are facing both economic and ecological challenges, therefore the farmers struggle to be resilient. This study constructs two purposes, (1) to measure the resilience level of smallholder plantations, and (2) to assess the effect of economic and ecological disruption on smallholders’ resilience. We interviewed a sample of 120 smallholders in South Bengkulu regency, Bengkulu Province, Indonesia. The methodology deploys a quantitative method (statistics and econometrics) to analyze the effect of disruptive incidents on smallholders’ resilience. Resilience is indicated by farmers’ ability to adapt to changes, to recover from downturn business conditions or catastrophes, to anticipate risk, and to innovate new designs of farming activities. Resilience is categorized as less or more resilient (binary). The economic disruption is triggered by production, market, and investment circumstances. Meanwhile, ecological disruption is resulted from natural disasters, climate change, farmer’s treatment of the land, land fire, and government environmental policy. The result shows that more than 60% of smallholder oil palm plantations in Bengkulu Province are less resilient. Production uncertainty, bargaining position, climate change, and environmentally unfriendly farming behaviours increase the possibility of lowering smallholders’ resilience level.

Multifaceted Social and Environmental Disruptions Impact on Smallholder Plantations’ Resilience in Indonesia

“…16 indicators were formulated in the questionnaire to indicate social disruption, and 12 indicators were expressed to indicate environmental disruptions. Statements stated for the resilience and disruption were on a 5-points Likert scale (5 = strongly agree; 4 = agree; 3 = neutral tend to agree; 2 = disagree; and 1 = strongly disagree) [ 75 ]. The smallholder plantations' resilience was analyzed by a multidimensional approach, which can be calculated by the following equation: where RPSn is the score of smallholder plantation' resilience of respondent n , ACap n is the total average score of each dimension capacity of respondent n , and i is the dimension capacity, which is the adaptability, recoverability, anticipation, and innovation [ 76 ].…”

“…Tose criteria were questioned in advance before the survey was conducted. Statements stated for the resilience and disruption were on a 5-points Likert scale (5 � strongly agree; 4 � agree; 3 � neutral tend to agree; 2 � disagree; and 1 � strongly disagree) [75]. Te smallholder plantations' resilience was analyzed by a multidimensional approach, which can be calculated by the following equation:…”