Indonesia’s slash-and-burn agricultural practices have often been blamed as non-sustainable and one of the primary causes of tropical deforestation (Kools, 1935; Geertz, 1963; Cramb, 1989). As a result, many developing nations have encouraged a complete stop to all forms of slash-and-burn practices (Kleinman et al, 1995). However, traditional agricultural practices are being re-evaluated as land management based on local ecological knowledge, beliefs, and practices seem to have incorporated a much higher degree of biodiversity conservation and wise use of natural resources (Kleimanman et al, 1995; Berkes and Folke, the ethnic Sundanese and is known for a strong wish
to maintain their identity as close to their ancestors’
traditions, particularly in farming practices, ngahuma.
They reside in Kanekes village, Lebak district in Benten province. Based on the tradition, the Baduys Luar. In 2015, they numbered 11,600 people in 3,395 households with Beduy Luar making up 80% of them.
Unlike other Sundanese people, Baduys prohibit wet rice cultivation system. Based on their original Sundanese religion, Sunda Wiwitan, they have to cultivate upland rice applying “organic farming” and Low-External-Inputs and Sustainable Agriculture (LEISA) and are prohibited to apply modern seed rice, chemical fertilizer and pesticides (cf. Reijntjes et al, 1992). Therefore, each household must cultivate upland rice by cutting and burning mature secondary forest in the dry season.
For a long time the forest surrounding the Kanekes village landscape around Mt. Kendeng has been
Resilience of Baduy traditional agro-forestry systems in responses to environmental and socio-economic changes
Johan Iskandar1 and 2
1Biology Department, FMIPA, Padjadjaran University
2
Corresponding Author email:
of the Baduys in responding various environmental and socio-economic changes remains resilient and plays an important and environmental changes.
Sistem agroforestri tradisional Baduy menghadapi tekanan kepunahan akibat peningkatan tekanan penduduk terhadap lahan, penetrasi ekonomi pasar, dan berbagai perubahan lingkungan, termasuk El Nino 1997 yang memicu bencana
kuat meskipun perubahan lingkungan dan sosial ekonomi sangat beragam.
Keywords
Received 17th May, 2016; Revision received and accepted 9th August, 2016.
independently managed and mainly used for farming and other traditional agroforestry schemes, including reuma and dukuh lembur. Ladang farming is considered a ritual obligation and considered the Baduy’s central period and since Indonesia’s independence, ladang farming has been prohibited in most of West Java and Banten, because it is believed to degrade both soil and forest (Kools, 1935) and portrayed through various other negative images (Persoon, 1989).
Unlike ladang farming system, irrigated paddy (sawah) farming practised by most Sundanese in West Java and Banten has been encouraged by the government, because it is believed to provide food security and an In the past two decades, government policies, demography, rapid socio-economic and land-use for the Baduys and their ladang farming system (cf.
review the ability of the Baduy communities to cope and environmental changes.
Data collection
The data was collected by semi-structured interviews, along with thorough interviews with informants, purposely selected for the task. These included older farmers in Cibeo hamlet of Inner Baduy, Kaduketug,
based on ethnoecological approach (Creswell, 1994;
The ladang Baduy farming and some stresses
The ladang or huma cultivation is the main source of Baduy subsistence and considered to be an obligation stemming from Baduy religious practises. To practise ladang cultivation, a piece of mature secondary forest (reuma kolot) is cleared completely of vegetation.
Woody plant and species with economic values, e.g.
fruit trees, are only pruned. Branches and stems are collected for fuel. The remaining biomass is burned
to supplement soil nutrients. Following this, the Oriza sativa) before the rainy season and mixed with various annual crops, such as job’s tear (Coix lacryma-jobi), maize (Zea mays), cucumber (Cucumis sativus), pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata), eggplant (Solanum melongena), wing bean (Psopocarpus palustris), sweet potato (Ipomoea babatas), taro (Colocasia esculenta) and yam (Dioscorea alata). The rice matures and is ready
eggplant and maize are harvest already three months after planting. The remaining crops are usually harvested at the same time as rice. After harvesting rice,
three years to restore soil fertility. Fallow land is usually left to recover by itself, and overgrown with shrubs and later emerging forests known locally as reuma ngora. If fallow period is extended further, succession secondary forest is known locally as reuma kolot. Rice planting usually begins again only after the fallow land has reached the reuma kolot stage of succession. If fallowing is needed, the Baduys shift to another piece of reuma kolot forest and follow the same procedure:
cutting and pruning, burning, planting, harvesting and fallowing. Sometimes, crop-land is developed into when other annuals or perennials are cultivated after the rice harvest (Iskandar, 1998).
hamlet with managed forest surrounding the hamlet (known as dukuh lembur, dudukuhan or lindung lembur
secondary forests and hamlet forests are commonly planted by annual and perennial crops, those land use types may be categorized as traditional agroforestry (cf.
King 1979; Soemarwoto and Soemarwoto, 1984; Beets, 1990; Weiwei et al, 2014). In addition, another land- use type, leuweung titipan, constitutes a protected forest that has never been cultivated.
The continued existence of Baduy traditional agroforestry is getting increasingly threatened by a combination of increasing population pressure, external market penetration, and environmental events such as developing strategies that will maintain sustainability of the huma system.
Baduy responses to external changes
challenges, Baduy huma farming has been maintained sawah farming Sundanese. Instead of relying on their traditional crops, includes commercial crops. They have also migrated to farming in neigbouring villages, gotten involved activities.
Unlike sawah cultivation system, various crops are harvested from the ladang or huma cultivation systems.
THill rice is the main production of the huma, which is harvested 5 months after planting. Reaping is done with a knife with an iron blade with a carved bamboo handle called etem (ani-ani in Javanese).
pumpkin, long bean, job’s tear, sweet potato, hyacinth bean and wing bean is produced concurrently during suitable seasons and banana is continuously harvested whenever the fruits are ripe.
from the ladang (79), reuma (93), dukuh lembur (79) and leuweung kolot (169) (Iskandar, 1998). Many of these are found in varieties, for example bananas, that is found in more than 15 local varieties. These are usually Local rice is recorded in 89 local varieties and the Baduy classify these based on the thickness of the cooked rice, hairiness of the unhusked rice, colour of the hulled rice, distinctiveness of the panicle, time taken to mature, and shape, size, and colour of the grains (Iskandar and Ellen 1999). The huma system also supported 40 species of food crops, including taro, yams, sweet potato, cassava, maize, and job’s tear. This high diversity of food crops has made it important for the Baduy’s food security.
Indeed, the rice has been culturally stored in rice barn (leuit pare
The high diversity of crops and plants grown in traditional Baduy agroforestry make them resilient to environmental stresses, including climate change and 2010). This also makes the Baduys more resilient to socio-economic stresses, because even if some crops fail to produce in one year, other humas in other locations
Temporary migration
The Baduys make use of various strategies to maintain the sustainability of the huma cultivation system.
To cope with the shortage of huma
Baduy, local residents have temporarily migrated to neighbouring non-Baduy area. Here, they have obtained the huma land by a system of renting and crop- sharing agreements with the local Muslim communities (Iskandar, 1982; Iskandar, 1998).
farm shelters known as saung huma or dangau and only return to their village sporadically. The length of time huma systems in non-Baduy area depends on soil fertility of the fallow reuma and when this is ready for rice planting again.
and cultivate land outside their own hamlets for more than three years each time they are forced to migrate.
The temporary migration is one of the more extreme the huma and reuma in their areas are maintained (cf.
Von Benda-Beckman and Benda-Beckman, 2000).
Introduction of commercial crops
According to the original Baduy tradition, it is prohibited to cultivate commercial plants, including teak (Tectona grandis), rubber (Hevea brasiliensis), mahogany (Swietenia mahogany), clove (Syzigium aromaticum) ), because these were
areas. Because of the high market price of clove and hamlets. Unfortunately, the informal Baduy leader, Puun, particularly during
following many raids by Baduys loyal to Puun as well although also destroyed in raids, has regrown and is cultivated for consumption in local households.
Albizzia, albasiah or kalabise (Paraserianthes falcataria) was planted in the1980s to replace clove trees following the collapse in the market price of cloves. At that time, however, cloves were prohibited by Puun, because it was believed that new crops could not be integrated into the traditional huma. Later, albasiah was allowed to be planted by Puun, because it was fast
growing, required less labour, improved soil fertility and could be used for household purposes. It could also provide much needed cash income (Iskandar, 1998).
The introduction of Albizzia in ladang Baduy system helped to alleviate environmental and socio-economic stresses, because it reduced the need to further deplete mature forest. It may also have contributed the community (Iskandar and Ellen, 2000; Iskandar and Ellen, 2007). In recent time, another tree species, kayu jabon (Anthocephalus sp,) was introduced and planted in the reuma
Petty trading
The emergence of a market economy has resulted in Baduys becoming intensively active in petty trading.
While locally produced rice is prohibited from trading, other crops such as palm sugar (Arenga pinnata), pepper (Piper rindu), petai (Parkia speciosa), picung (Pangium edule), durian (Durio zibethinus), banana (Musa paradisiaca) and coconut (Cocos nucifera) act as middlemen involved in trading non-rice crops, traditional clothes and handicraft. By engaging in petty daily household needs and hire labour to assist in some activities of ladang management, including cutting underbush, felling trees and weeding.
Household Handicrafts
While the huma cultivation system is considered an obligation in Baduy culture, people can freely get involved in making various types of handicraft. Baduy women are often occupied making traditional woven fabric. The materials, particularly various coloured yarns, are usually bought in town and sold to other Baduy men are also involved in making traditional woven bags from bark cloth; koja and jarog. The bark of young teureup trees (Artocarpus elasticus), tanned with gintung ( ) or salam (Syzigium polyanthum bark. Products are sold to middle men, neighbouring areas. Since the 1980s, several village markets have been replaced with permanent small products (e.g petai, jengkol and palm sugar) and Baduys sell handicrafts, such as koja and jarog and various traditionally woven fabrics.
Palm sugar production
Badyus use sugar palm (Arenga pinnata) and various parts of it for many things. Young leaves are used to wrap cigarettes, for decorating sacred places (pungpuhunan) during the rice planting process and in rituals when ngalaksa). Fibre is used as rope to tie bamboo bridges and house construction.
The main product of the sugar palm is its syrup, which is tapped, fermented and stored in a bamboo. The syrup is also used to produce palm sugar, particularly households produce palm sugar for local consumption and sale. In many instances, palm sugar is also used to pay daily labourers hired to work in the huma. In 2003,
Alternative income
farm activities to sustain daily household needs and for paying daily labourers working in humas. Some work as part-time porters between Baduy hamlet to the main road, weeding and rice harvesting in neighbouring villages, as well as building houses (Iskandar, 2007).
In addition, many Baduys guide domestic and foreign visitors to their village. The number of visitors have increased from approx. 1,500 people in 1998 to more than 20,000 visitors in 2003, and tourism has become one of the main revenue earners for the villagers in small food and beverage businesses have sprung up along with many souvenir shops.
The traditional Baduy agroforestry practices in the agricultural landscape, along with a high level of
practices ensures food-security (e.g. rice storage, diversity), crop diversity (e.g. handicraft, medicine, timber) and income diversity (e.g. commodity trading, labour, guides). At the same time, the agricultural practices are guided by cultural traditions that prescribe
the use of organic farming and fallow-regimes that Baduys have also instituted rice growing strategies that are based on “moral economic system” --- that is, it is not permitted to trade in rice, and surplus must be stored in rice barns. In some cases, rice have been stored for up to 50 years, ensuring food security even in years with poor crop production.
This case-study suggest that the Baduys indeed practice agriculture in a manner that can be considered environmentally friendly and is robust in a socio- economic context. Similar traditional landuse systems are found in many other places of Indonesia and it is important that these are assessed properly, before condemning them as “unsustainable”. In many cases, building on local knowledge is a far cheaper, more development.
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