Leunca (Solanum americanum Mill.): The uses as vegetable in two villages in Upper Citarum Area, Bandung, West Java, Indonesia

Abstract

Abstract. Prihatini J, Iskandar J, Partasasmita R, Nurjaman D. 2018. The impacts of traditional homegarden conversion into the commercial one: A case study in Sukapura Village of the Upstream Citarum Watershed, West Java, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 19: 1926-1940. In the past, rural homegardens in West Java were planted with various annual and perennial crops. As a result, the vegetation structure of traditional homegardens in rural areas of West Java, Indonesia was very complex, similar to that of forest vegetation. Nowadays, however, due to rapid development of market economic system in rural areas, many traditional homegardens in West Java have been converted into the commercial ones. Consequently, the structure and functions of the homegardens have drastically changed. For example, the vegetation structure has become simpler and dominated by commercial crops, and the gardens serve mostly economic function instead of providing various ecological, socio-economic and cultural functions. The aim of this study was to elucidate: (i) the ecological history of traditional homegardens, (ii) the changes of structure and functions of the homegardens converted from the traditional into the commercial one, and (iii) the positive and negative impacts of conversion of the traditional homegardens into the commercial ones in the Village of Sukapura, the Subdistrict of Kertasari, the District of Bandung, Upstream Citarum Watershed, West Java. The combination of qualitative and quantitative methods were used, while some techniques, including observations, and in-depth interviews with competent informants were applied in this study. The results of study showed that initially the traditional homegardens in Kertasari Village had been predominantly cropped with various annual and perennial crops. However, due to market economic development, the homegardens have been drastically changed. For example, the commercial vegetable crops, including Welsh onion (Allium fistulosum L), carrot (Daucus carota L) and cabbage (Brassica oleracea var capitata) have been predominantly cultivated in the commercial homegardens. Consequently, the household income of the village people who own the commercial homegardens increased, however, some ecological and socio-cultural functions of the commercial homegardens drastically decreased. In addition, some negative impacts of the commercialization of the homegardens have occurred. We suggest that to develop the sustainable village homegardens for the future, the diversity of plants must be maintained to provide ecological function or ecosystem services and the economic production must be improved to increase the income of the rural people.

The diversity of useful plants and botanical knowledge of the Rejang Tribe in Kepahiang District, Bengkulu Province, Indonesia

“…In a study of homegardens in Vietnam (Timsuksai et al 2015) ornamental plants ranked second, while in homegardens of Karwar, Karnataka, India, ornamental plants ranked first, indicating that the economic level of the community was relatively good (Bhat et al 2014). In West Java, the transition of traditional homegardens into the modern ones was characterized by the increase in proportion of ornamental species (Iskandar et al 2018;Prihatini et al 2018). Although the number of useful species varied greatly among the traditional gardens, in general, the diversity of useful plant species in traditional gardens is much higher that of modern plantations.…”

“…However, many traditional gardens have been converted into commercial ones due to the penetration of market economy which causes drastic changes in their species composition. In Sukapura Village of West Java, Prihatini et al (2018) found that traditional gardens were composed of 161 species of plants, while the commercial gardens had only 61 species, dominated by commercial vegetable crops. Although the commercial gardens yield high economic revenue, they lose some of their ecological functions.…”

“…In the past, traditional gardens were planted with various annual and perennial plants, so they resembled natural forests in structure and provided many needs for rural people (Soemarwoto 1983;Iskandar and Iskandar 2016). The modern homegardens has simpler structure and lower diversity (Iskandar et al 2018;Prihatini et al 2018).…”

Local knowledge of the community in Cintaratu Village, Pangandaran, Indonesia on traditional landscapes for sustainable land management

“…Pakarangan itself is usually used by the community as a place to grow vegetables such as cengek (Capsicum frutescens L) or herbs. The plots of land in Cintaratu Village generally tend to have lower diversity of plant species than the home-gardens in semi-urban areas such as in Sukapura village, Bandung, which have many species of vegetable crops, including corn (Zea mays L), cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz), banana (Musa x paradisiaca L), tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L), ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe), sand ginger / Kaempferia galanga L), tumeric / koneng (Curcuma domestica Valeton), sweet potato / hui boled (Ipomoea batatas L), peanut (Arachis hypogaea L), and lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus (DC) Stapf) (Prihatini et al 2018).…”

Gastronomic ethnobotany of traditional vegetables among the Sundanese in rural West Java, Indonesia

“…(Iskandar 2017;. Generally, food choice in the community is not simply an individual behavior but a practice influenced by social and environmental conditions, and these environments vary greatly, contributing to growing natural health inequalities (Engler-Stringer et al 2014;Pieroni et al 2016;Mulyanto et al 2018).…”