Abstract:
STUDIES OF shifting cultivation in relation to forest-pioneer continuum and to loss of forest cover in developing countries are not well documented. This paper analyzes the system of shifting cultivation practices in communal forest area in Jambi Province of Sumatra, Indonesia. It emphasizes on the economic adjustment process of how shifting cultivators might adopt bush-fallow rotation system as a means to naturally improve agricultural productivity or apply more permanent and intensive land-use systems as a response to increasing real wages and growing market economy in rural area. The standard method of land-rent-capture is used to explain the economic rationale behind shifting cultivation practices.
The results suggest that shifting cultivation actually differs from a simple forest clearing which normally involves slash-and-burn, logging and other related timber-production activities. Shifting cultivation could be considered as an early stage in the evolution of agricultural systems. Provision of modern agricultural inputs such as seeds, fertilizer, and pesticides; quality rural infrastructure, and nonfarm employment generation in rural areas are necessary condition for economically sound policy strategies in the future. In addition, agroforestry systems involving high-yielding variety of rubber and upland rice and management of forest lands by local communities also can be more effective means of sustainable forest-resource management.
Conclusion and Policy Implications
This study has presented the profitability of shifting cultivation system in communal forest area in Jambi Province of Sumatra, Indonesia. The land rent approach has explained the economic adjustment process of how shifting cultivators might adopt different length of bush-fallow rotation system. The results of micro-economic analysis using both single year and multiple-year simulation show that lowland rice is more profitable than the short and medium fallow of the shifting cultivation system but less profitable than the long-fallow of system. Under an open economy argument, farmers are trying to adopt a more permanent and more intensive land-use practices in accordance with the increasing pressure and the existence of market forces and the growing market economy in rural area.
Even though a long fallow shifting cultivation system is also profitable and an indication of domestic resource use efficiency, but probably it is not a wise choice given the pressure on land have increased over time. Since the long bush-fallow system is hardly found in the lowland Sumatra at present time, the policy challenge is then how well-prepared the supporting systems such as transportation infrastructure, irrigation, provision of modern inputs, etc. that could maintain the efficiency and profitability of lowland rice cultivation system? Or this preliminary finding could be taken as another assured indication that farmers adopting an upland shifting cultivation under “ normal length” of bush fallow (short and medium) is a pre-requisite to establish the property rights on land under a tree crop or cash crop system such as rubber and cassiavera.
Therefore, provision of modern agricultural inputs such as seeds, fertilizer, and pesticides; quality rural infrastructure, and non-farm employment generation in rural areas are necessary condition for economically sound policy strategies in the future. In addition, agroforestry systems involving highyielding variety of rubber and upland rice and management of forest lands by local communities also can be more effective means of sustainable forest-resource management.[]
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Bustanul Arifin, “Does Shifting Cultivation Really Cause Deforestation? Lesson from Communal Forest Area in Sumatra, Indonesia”, Paper presented at the Seventh Biennial Conference of the International Association for the Study of Common Property, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, June 10-14, 1998.
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