Climate Change, Forests and Peatlands in Indonesia

PROMOTING BEST AGRICULTURE PRACTICES FOR PEATLANDS

CONSERVATION AND INCOME GENERATING ACTIVITIES

Gusti Anshari1, Fadjar Rianto2, Arie Mirjaya3, and Fransiska Nelly4

1
Faculty of Agriculture, Tanjungpura University Jl A Yani Pontianak 78124, Kalimantan Barat
Tel/Fax: (62)-561-740191, Email: gzanshari@yahoo.com
2
Faculty of Agriculture, Tanjungpura University Jl A Yani Pontianak 78124, Kalimantan Barat
Tel/Fax: (62)-561-740191
3
International Organization for Migration (IOM), Surya Building 12 A Floor Suite 12A-03
Jl M.H. Thamrin Kav. 9 Jakarta 10350,
Tel (62) 21-39838529, Fax (62) 21-39838528,
Email: mirjaya@iom.int
4
Yayasan Konservasi Borneo. Jl. Paris 2, Perumahan Bali Mas 2 No.5B Pontianak 78124,
Kalimantan Barat, Tel/Fax; (62)-561-711919, Email: borneoconservancy@yahoo.com

Abstract

Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), resulting from the ethnic riots in West Kalimantan have been
resettled by the Provincial Government in peatland areas. It seems that the resettlements of IDPs in
peatland area are the cheapest option, but this policy would have created new problems in the long
term. Peat is an extremely marginal resource for agriculture, and undervalued for its environmental
functions.

All new settlers have little or no experience at all in practicing peatland agriculture. The common and
current method of peatland agriculture is the use of fire in order to gather woody and peat ash, which
plays an important role in improving peat fertility. Although the use of fire is found to be beneficial in
short term, it would not conserve the peatlands. Through the European Unions Humanitarian Aid
Office-funded, a Land Rehabilitation and Capacity Building project is being implemented by
International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Pontianak, of which the use of ocean mud, as an
alternative for peat amelioration, has been introduced. This paper presents a best peatlands
agriculture practice, dissemination strategies and difficulties, and major factors that influence IDPs to
adopt the introduced management scheme. It is expected that peatlands conservation would secure
income-generating activities and would allow the targeted beneficiaries the opportunities for
sustainable and environmentally-friendly livelihoods.

Keywords: peatlands agriculture, ocean mud, dissemination techniques and strategies

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INTRODUCTION

In West Kalimantan, it is estimated that the total size of tropical peatlands ranges from 1.1 to 4.6
millions hectares. This peatlands is mostly situated along the coast of the districts of Ketapang,
Pontianak, and Sambas. The formation of this coastal peat is probably in line with the formation of
peat in northern Borneo. Anderson and Muller (1975) provided evidence that coastal peat in this
region occur on mangrove, and freshwater swamp forests. It is also common that these swamps
contain pyrites and sulphidic soil. On other hand, interior peatlands is originally from kerangas (heath)
and kerapah forests.

Tropical peat is partially decomposed biomass of woody vegetation that deposits under waterlogged
environment. Factors affecting peat accumulation are slow respiration rate resulting from waterlogged
condition, highly acidic environment, and high content of vegetation fibers. Nutrients in peatland
forests are greatly derived from floods and rains. Peatland vegetation species has special tools and
mechanisms to uptake and retain nutrients in the closed peatland ecosystem. Since tropical peatland
forest is unique, the ecosystem is extremely fragile.

The general aim of the project is to develop sustainable peatland agriculture based on people-
centered development. The objectives of this project are to promote best management scheme for
peatland agriculture, involving the use of marine sediment or ocean mud as an ameliorant. Next, the
improvement of peat fertility would allow the development of sustainable agriculture, which is expected
to decelerate peat oxidation and to generate decent livelihoods.

Project site and methods

The project is located in Sungai Asam, Kecamatan Sungai Raya, Pontianak District. The convenient
way to go to the site is the use of water transportation. From Sungai Durian, about 20 km from
Pontianak (the capital of West Kalimantan Province), it takes about 30 minutes to arrive at Sungai
Asam with a 40 PK speedboat. A dirt road to the site is poorly accessible. It takes about 1 hours to
go to Sungai Asam by a motorcycle. Figure 1 shows the location of project site.

The site is mostly dominated by deep peat deposit. It is estimated the depth of peat in this location
ranges between 6 and 8 meters. Since the site is still covered by over-logged peatland forest, farmers
find very difficult in removing dead stumps and logs from the cultivated site. Land clearing is commonly
done by fire. Drainage channels are built by the government. Weirs are not constructed, creating over-
drainage in dry season.

A total of almost 400 households are recorded, consisting of mainly IDPs and local inhabitants.
Recently, it was determined that families from Aceh have been transmigrated by the Department of
Manpower and Transmigration to the sites. In this ECHO-funded project, the expected beneficiaries
are between 365 and 400 households.

The participation procedure of this project is voluntary, cooperative, and puts emphasis on the
participants sense of responsibility towards their own survival, and the environmental conservation.
The potential beneficiaries were asked to register and comply with the project requirements although
all those who have decided to join have provided inputs and agreed with the plan of action, including
the methodologies to be adopted. In this case, the application of ocean mud has been agreed to be
mandatory. The use of woody and peat ash is neither prohibited nor encouraged. In return, for
adopting the application of ocean mud, all beneficiaries are appropriately trained, and provided
technical assistance (through capacity building activities and daily monitoring), seeds, fertilizers,
chicken manures, EM4 solution, and other agricultural inputs.

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The land rehabilitation

project consists of three
cycles. The first stage is
to build demonstration
plots, managed by
community groups. In
these plots, the
application of ocean mud
is compared with the
current practice, the use
of woody and peat ash.
All plots are also fertilized
with fermented chicken
manures. The crops are
mixed, consisting of king
grass, maize, and kinds
of vegetables. The
second stage is to
promote the application
of ocean mud on
individual site of
beneficiaries. It is
expected that each
beneficiary would
cultivate at least 500 m2
of peatlands, and plant
with vegetables and
annual crops selected in
community workshop,
deemed to be most
appropriate for the soil
conditions. The purpose
of this stage is still non-
commercial, but would
augment the incomes of
the beneficiaries through
the sale of some crops
harvested. The final
stage of the project,
Figure 2. Project site, showing the present relocation settlements on disturbed which has been designed
and open peat swamp forest to be on a bigger and
commercial scale, would
involve a private sector in marketing the products,
particularly corn. The project intends to ensure
that the beneficiaries will have sustainable
sources of livelihood by project completion. In
West Kalimantan, corn kernels are highly
demanded by chicken farms. This crop has been
proven to grow well on peatland (Anshari et al.
2003)

The project has already facilitated the selection of

a businessman to form a win-win partnership
scheme with IDPs. To achieve this, the project
would provide post-harvest and basic technical
assistance. The selected private sector would
guarantee the market by purchasing the harvest,
as stated in the agreement. In all stages, the
Figure 1. Ocean mud at Pantai Kijing, about 75km project is essentially based on learning by doing
away from Pontianak

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approach. Both beneficiaries and project staff are expected to work together and learn from project
activities.

The management of the project consists of IOM (International Organization for Migration), with full
technical assistance from Agriculture Faculty of Tanjungpura University and guidance from the
Provincial Department of Agriculture. Funds for the project implementation have been received from
European Commission Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO). The duration of the project is one year. It is
very important to move from humanitarian stage into regional development phase. Major assistance
given to IDPs in the form of humanitarian aids, such as free distribution of foods, and agricultural tools
and inputs does not result in the establishment of self-reliant development model. In the case of the
IDPs in West Kalimantan, it has been observed that humanitarian aid seemed to have increased the
dependency level of IDPs on support from the government and international donors. Hence, the
project is working towards an increase in capacity building and the promotion of existing resource use.
It is expected that a culture of dependence would disappear among beneficiaries.

Current Practice in Peatlands Agriculture

Initially, almost all peat swamp forests in West Kalimantan were logged in 1970s, and then opened
and reclaimed for agriculture and human settlements. Consequently, no intact peatland forest could be
found, except in remote location, i.e. customary peatland forest in Danau Sentarum National Park. For
agriculture purposes, peat is treated as an enemy. Peatland reclamation is initially conducted by the
removals of peat and organic acids. The reduction of peat deposit is substantially done by burning
and lowering water table. Drainage canals are built in order to wash organic acids and accelerate the
rate of peat oxidation. Lime is also commonly promoted to improve soil acidity. The use of volcanic
ash was ever introduced, too. As a matter of facts, all introduced techniques are not proved to be
suitable to current socio-economic condition of peatlands farmers.

The current practice is the use of woody ash, rotten fish and shrimps. Woody ash is gathered from
sawmills, and the burning of top deposit, dry layer of peat. An integrated vegetables farming on
peatland is found, and mainly practiced by Chinese farmers. In this case, most farmers largely depend
upon the use of ash derived from saw woods and peat, some rotten fish, and manures (both solid and
liquid forms) mainly from pigs and chicken. For years, these vegetable farmers are successful in
producing green vegetables and controlling the market. A marketing network and distribution channels
have been well established by Chinese traders and farmers.

The present practice seems to face uncertainty since the supply of ash from saw mills rapidly declines,
following the decline of timber industry in this region. Without ash input, peatland agriculture would
collapse because many crops are not tolerant to low pH, which also may cause the retention of major
nutrients. This evidence clearly shows that the use of ash in peatland agriculture has some
disadvantages. As a major source of ash is from sawmills, this practice indirectly discourage the save
of timber. Farmers may also cut more trees from secondary peatland forest, and then burn the logs.
When logs are difficult to find, farmers are very likely to burn the top layer of cultivated peat. The
removal of peat by fire and oxidation substantially reduce peat depth, and potentially causes the
emergence of sulphidic soil, and pyrites. Peat fire produces haze that endangers human health and
the environment and disturbs the flow of both aerial and surface transportation. Depending on
drainage condition, peatland areas are greatly influenced by rain water. During rainy season, floods
may occur. On the other hand, water level would significantly drop during low rain periods, creating
favorable environment for peat fire.

Ocean mud as an ameliorant

Ocean mud is good ameliorant for improving peat fertility. The technology is very simple. Ocean mud
is collected freely at coastal areas. The material is then mixed with water. The solution of ocean mud
is poured on the seedbed, and properly blended with surface peat. The planting can be done after 10
14 days of application. For one hectare, it requires 15-20 tons of ocean mud, or equals to 5% of
estimated peat weight (Rianto et al 1996). The cost of ocean mud application is cheaper than the cost
of lime or volcanic ash. Our calculation shows that the use of ocean mud costs less Rp. 80,000
100,000 than the use of lime per tons, based on the present price in Pontianak. .

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Ocean mud has dual functions, as an ameliorant and fertilizer. Adding minerals would improve the
properties of peat. The chemical properties of ocean mud are rich in major cations, low in cation
exchange capacity, and may contain some microelements.

Table 1. Chemical properties of ocean mud from Pantai Kijing

Variables Results

pH (H2O) 8.2

pH (KCl) 7.9

P Bray-1 5.6 ppm

N-total 0.2 %

Major Cations :

Potassium (K) 5.4 me/100gr

Sodium (Na) 45.9 me/100 gr

Calcium (Ca) 62.0 me/100 gr

Magnesium (Mg) 12.4 me/100 gr

Extraction of KCl 1 N:

Aluminum (Al) nd

Hydrogen (H) 0.4 me/100 gr

Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC) 17.5

Base Saturation 100%

nd = not detectable

Source: Soil Laboratory of Agriculture Faculty, Tanjungpura University, 1998

This ocean mud also contains microelements, such as Zn (43.1 me/100gr), Cu (22.8 me/100gr), and
Mn (306.8 me/100 gr). The content of Fe is relatively high, reaching 159.6 me/100 gr. The fractions of
ocean mud consist of sand (9%), clay (10%), and dust (81%). The conductivity is recorded to be
around 2.4 ms/cm. The expected effects of ocean mud application are to increase pH and base
saturation, to improve peat fertility, and change the physical properties. Table 1 shows chemical
contents of ocean mud collected from Pantai Kijing, in Kabupaten Pontianak.

Major difficulties and challenges

Beneficiaries, who are still in doubt to apply the ameliorant, do not currently demand the introduced
ocean mud. Although research results have shown that ocean mud is proved to increase peat fertility,
the application of ocean mud is still limited in experimental conditions conducted by agronomists
(Latief 2003; Maulidia, 1995; Pujianto 1993, Suyadi, 1995 ). To mention a few, the use of ocean mud
as an ameliorant is largely promoted by Saeri Sagiman, the current dean of Agriculture Faculty of
Tanjungpura University.

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To encourage the adoption of ocean mud, all

demonstration plots are designed to show the
benefits of ocean mud. Farmers are offered with
alternatives, and required to do a simple analysis
by comparing the effects derived from the
application of ocean mud and ash. An important
fact that has been highlighted was that the use of
ash for three years in the sites has not done much
to contribute on the improvement of soil conditions
and have not yielded abundant harvest.

Farmers consider the application of ocean mud to

be laborious, comparing to the current practice. In
contrast, the use of fire is so simple. Farmers,
Figure 3. The application of ocean mud has been when dry periods occur, just burn the peatlands,
conducted by IDPs in the demonstration and then plant the crops in the place where ash is
plots, and shown positive influence on the considered enough to support the growth of crops.
growth of maize (Seedbed mixed with In this practice, the planting space follows the
ocean mud in the left, and seedbed accumulation pattern of woody and peat ash. The
without ocean mud in the right). Photo: G application of ocean mud is suggested to follow
Anshari, 2003 planting rows, particularly in the place where the
seed will be planted. The application of ocean
mud in prepared seedbeds is considered to be time consuming and extremely arduous. In addition,
the promotion of ocean mud application is indirectly discouraged, when other organizations elsewhere,
and NGOs working in peatland site still favor the use of woody and peat ash. The distribution of
cultural techniques in peatlands agriculture is greatly influenced by successful examples learnt from
other peatland agriculturists. Supports given by other donor agencies to promote, either indirect or
direct ways, to use woody ash are discouraging the adoption of ocean mud.

Another major reason that makes IDPs to be

unenthusiastic to be engaged in the best
agricultural practice is the inaccessibility to
market. It is still difficult for most farmers to supply
the demanded product in marketable quality, and
quantity. To solve this problem, IDPs are asked to
form a task group for assessing market
requirements and establishing marketing network.
The project has also tried to facilitate the direct
communication between private sector and
farmers.

Discussions and conclusions

The introduction of best agriculture practice in

Figure 4. Assistance for building a place of peatland area is a complex task. The problems
incineration, locally called ash hut, is an are varied, not only in relation to technical but also
example of fire promoting practice in socio-economic factors. It seems most farmers
peatland agriculture are very likely to wait and see the results of ocean
mud application before they decide to join the
project scheme. As in most situations, the introduction of a new technology and methodology that
involves change of practices is always meet with resistance until proven effective. This attitude poses
additional challenges and requires extra tasks for project management to persuade, ensure and
promote the behavior change among beneficiaries, particularly IDPs. To counter the resistance and
doubts, the project staff is made available everyday for consultation and helps to solve many problems
related to agriculture practices. In many cases, IDPs wants to receive cash rather than agricultural
inputs. This attitude is partially formed by former activities of NGOs, which have provided emergency
assistance in the forms of foods and other physical materials.

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It is a big challenge for the project management to keep motivation consistently at a high level and
develop an integrated program for the IDPs. It is common for IDPs to have different opinions, views,
and aspirations. Information is commonly distorted because the application of ocean mud is not
properly understood by IDPs. As the project goes on, many IDPs raise a common concern whether
the promoted activities would sustain, particularly after the project ends. IDPs argue it is difficult for
them to gain ocean mud. Although ocean mud is plentiful and free of charge, it bears transportation
costs and labor. It is impossible for IDPs to transfer ocean mud from Pantai Kijing, about 75 Km. away
from Pontianak, to project site without any help. It is ideal if the Government of West Kalimantan would
have a program that provides subsidy for accessing ocean mud. As the estuary of Kapuas River is
annually dredged, it is possible for the Government of West Kalimantan to make ocean mud easily
available. In addition, the project will work towards forming a cooperative with revolving funds that
members can borrow from to cover costs associated with using environment-friendly agricultural
practices after project completion.

In the field, it is common to have misconception between land clearing and the development of
sustainable peatland agriculture. Most farmers and many NGOs are trapped in the issue of fire use
during land clearing. It is true that fire is the cheapest method for land clearing, but fire would not
guarantee the sustainability of peatland agriculture. When land is cleared, and seedbeds are properly
established, all activities in peatland agriculture should focus on the management of cultivated peat
layer. If fire is still in use, all peat layer would be oxidized and finally disappear. As a consequence, the
most destructive impact of fire use in peatland agriculture is the removal of peat. Hence, this
consequence would keep all peatland communities living under poverty line and in unhealthy
environment.

Reference

Anderson, J.A.R, and Muller, Jan. 1975. Palynological study of a Holocene peat and a Miocene coal
deposit from NW Borneo. Rev. Paleobot., and Paly. 19: 291-351

Anshari, Gusti., Gafur, Sutarman., Kusnandar, Dadan., Mulki, Gusti Zulkifli., Jafar, Fariastuti., and
Komari, Nurul 2003. Pengembangan pertanian di wilayah Singbebas Plus yang berorientasi
pasar, pemberdayaan komunitas petani dan perlindungan lingkungan. Laporan akhir. JICA
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Pujianto. 1993. Pengaruh pemberian lumpur laut terhadap beberapa sifat kmia tanah dan produksi
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Rianto, Fadjar. Suyadi., Gunawan, Joni, Khaidir, and Rachmat. 1996. Penggunaan Lumpur laut dan
bakteri bintil akar dalam upaya peningkatan produksi Kedelai di lahan gambut. Laporan
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Suyadi, 1995. Influence of coastal sediment and lime in peat chemical properties in relation to
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Acknowledgements

The authors specially thank to IDPs who have worked and collaborated with us, and learned together.
Marites dela Cruz is fully appreciated for reviewing the draft of this paper. The Land Rehabilitation
project is being implemented with financial assistance from ECHO (European Commission for
Humanitarian Office). Finally, we also need to mention that application of ocean mud as an ameliorant
in peatland agriculture is originated from research results chaired by Dr Saeri Sagiman of Agriculture
Faculty, Tanjungpura University.

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