Sustainable Agroforestry Models for Proposed Food Production in Post-Mined Land Sites of South Sumatera

Abstract

The reclamation areas of the opencast coal mining in South Sumatera are predominantly compact and nutrient-poor, marginal sites but have a high potential for cultivation of fast-growing trees and agricultural crops. This paper aims to promote several models of agroforestry in the post-mined land in South Sumatera as a new strategy in reclaiming degraded soil properties for both enviroment and economic purposes. About 5,000 ha of coal mining areas were observed to characterize the landscape and soil properties in the area, then overlaid with the landuse maps of post-mining plans issued by the company. Results showed that about 1,730 ha of the reclamation areas was suitable for agroforestry while the rest was for utilities, camping ground, water pond and grassland. Three models were proposed for the agroforestry areas, including (i) agrisilviculture model (1,190 ha), (ii) silvihorticulture model (203 ha), and (iii) local-species collection model for agrihortisilviculture (337 ha). Prior to the agroforestry establishment, all reclamation sites were subjected to the revegetation with fast-growing trees and other rejuvenation treatments in order to restore favour soil and microclimate conditions. The proposed components for each model were as follows: for agrisilviculture model were cultivation on the alley cropping system of trees and food crops, for silvihorticulture model were the plantation of fruit trees in the bench of water pond, and for local-species collection model for agrihortisilviculture were the cultivation of local forest and food crop species.

A Quick Dielectric Method to Determine Insitu Soil Water Content for Precision Water Use under Sustainable Agricultural Practices

“…The prediction would be useful in some management decisions in agricultural activities such as the time, and the amount of water irrigation must be applied in order to maintain good cropping growth. In particular cases, it would be very important in determining temporal soil water content at a seriously degraded land with restricted water availability when proposed for crop production as reported in our previous study [22]. Therefore, soil water balance might be determined using the proposed quick method of dielectical measurements, using the available data at weather stations, or in a combination of two approaches.…”