Sustainability status of agroforestry systems in Timor Island, Indonesia

Abstract

Agroforestry systems can be considered as sustainability concept. They are able to provide ecological, economical and sociological benefit. In order to help policy makers and stakeholder decide what action should be taken to make agroforestry sustainable, the identification of the sustainability status is needed. This study aimed to evaluate the sustainability status of agroforestry systems in Timor Island, one of the islands in Nusa Tenggara Timur Province, eastern Indonesia. The data was collected through combination of field observation and interviews with 38 respondents with purposively selected in three dominant agroforestry systems, namely: mixed-garden, mamar, traditional agroforestry and silvopasture. Multidimensional Scaling approach was used to analyse the sustainability status of agroforestry systems based on five dimensions (ecology, economy, social, institutional and technology) as well as 26 attributes. The attribute valuation was in ordinal scale based on sustainable criteria of each dimension. The criteria were ranked from 0 (the lowest) to 3 (the highest). The assessment of sustainability status was classified into: not sustainable (0-25%), less sustainable (25-50%), moderate sustainable (50-75%) and good sustainable (75-100%). The result revealed that the sustainability of all agroforestry systems were in moderate sustainable. This study found that, only 15 out of 26 attributes were categorized as sensitive attributes. Such data and information are important for the agroforestry farmer or other related stakeholder for improving appropriate strategies or action in sustainable agroforestry management.

Clusterization of Agroforestry Farmers using K-Means Cluster Algorithm and Elbow Method

“…Agroforestry farmers around Tahura WAR are dominated by men, which is similar to conditions in other places in Lampung, elsewhere in Indonesia, and several other countries (Desalgne et al 2022;Fauziyah 2018;Gebrehiwot et al 2018;Kalanzi et al 2020;Manginsela et al 2021;Susanti et al 2021). The age of agroforestry farmers around Tahura WAR is also dominated by the older farmers, with a few young farmers (≤ 30 years), that was similar to several areas in Indonesia and other countries (Burano and Siska 2019;Dewi et al 2021;Pujiono et al 2021;Rozaki et al 2021;Sauvadet et al 2020).…”

“…Family dependents can be related to the welfare of agroforestry farmers. The number of family dependents is closely associated with family income and expenses (Farooq et al 2018;Jha et al 2021;Nuryati et al 2019;Pujiono et al 2021). The increasing number of family dependents will increase family expenses, so farmers must consider every change in their farming to minimize risk as a form of accountability to the family (Baker 2018).…”

The habitat suitability of Timor friarbird (Philemon inornatus) in Western Timor Island, Indonesia

“…Timor Friarbird has been known to coexist with humans and also predominated almost all lowlands in the area. The pattern of 'Mamar' a traditional wisdom agroforest around springs (Pujiono et al 2021) settlements and agricultural activities around natural water sources or rivers, such as the Baumata and Camplong springs, 'Overlaps' wildlife habitats.…”

Economic Analysis of Agroforestry Applications by Dryland Forest Farmer Group in Pelambik Village, Central Lombok District, Indonesia

“…These things were all required by both plants optimally by maximizing existing land resources and minimizing unfavorable competition between plants that make up agroforestry [18]. The selection of agroforestry plant species should be made by considering a balance in the economic, social and ecological aspect to ensure the sustainability of their management [19]. From the ecological aspects, the selection of plants tends to consider the objectives of ecosystem service provision such as regulating hydrological balance [20], carbon sequestration or CO2 emission reduction [21] and preservation of biodiversity [22].…”