Cultivation of underutilized fruit trees by indigenous people in Urug Village, West Java, Indonesia

Abstract

Abstract. Anggraeni A, Yuniati R, Silalahi M, Lestari R, Jumari. 2023. Cultivation of underutilized fruit trees by indigenous people in Urug Village, West Java, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 24: 454-466. Underutilized Fruit Trees (UFTs) are a group of fruit trees with high potential but underutilized. Some fruit has been identified in Urug Village, but this village was hit by a natural disaster, i.e., a flood and landslide in early 2020 that damaged the location where UFTs grew, threatening the existence of UFTs genetic resources. Therefore, a systematic and integrated effort is needed to maintain UFTs biodiversity. This study aims to discover how to cultivate UFTs by the indigenous peoples in Urug Village, document the location where UFTs grow, and analyze index vegetation using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). Using the combined method of Focus Group Discussion (FGD) with 16 indigenous people, in-depth interviews with 19 indigenous people, and field observations, this study shows that there are 53 individuals of UFTs from 13 species found in several areas in Urug Village. Indigenous people have a unique way of cultivating UFT, starting from tree selection, preparation of planting sites, tree planting, and fruit tree care. However, more than 60% of UFT was found in the moderate vegetation index. The challenges of UFTs cultivation in Urug Village are changes in fruit consumption patterns, degradation of local knowledge, lack of information about the nutritional and vitamin content of UFTs, land use change, climate change, and the low involvement of both central and regional governments in cultivating UFTs. Thus, changes in consumer and government perceptions, and increased research on UFT are needed to address the challenges of cultivating UFT.

The Characteristics and Utilization of Pekarangan Pangan Lestari to Achieve Urban Food Security in Depok City, West Java

“…The primary data such as informant profile, plant benefit, and how P2L is managed. The technique for selecting respondents was snowball sampling with a total of 30 people (Anggraeni et al 2023). The field observation aims to obtain the area, distribution, and plant diversity of P2L.…”

Indigenous practices for cultivation of fruit plants in Kampung Dukuh, West Java, Indonesia

“…Fruit plants have been cultivated to mitigate climate change and prevent floods and landslides (Reppin et al 2020). Fruit trees such as Syzygium aqueum, which is cultivated in Urug Village, West Java is consumed by local people and also as food for Macaca fascicularis (long-tailed macaques) (Mudiana & Ariyanti 2022;Anggraeni et al 2023). Long-tailed macaques consume the flowers (Nila et al 2014) and fruit of S. aqueum (Reinegger et al 2023).…”