Agroforestry by Baduy Community in Banten province, Indonesia
Year: 2010
Type: article
Abstract: Agroforestry is an integrated approach of combining agriculture and forestry technologies, preserving the natural environment, producing food in a sustainable way and providing the local residents with stable food supply. It has gathered attention in the tropics recent years. This study focuses on status quo of traditional agroforestry in Baduy community, which is still little known. It further discusses the land use, vegetation composition, distribution of plants, and forest uses. There are two types of agroforestry in Baduy communty: Kebon and Huma-Jami-Reuma. In a Kebon, without slash and burn, there is an upstorey of fruit trees and woods, and a low storey of useful herbaceous plants for food, medicine and ritual. Useful plants could be continuously harvested. A Huma-Jami-Reuma is a kind of shifting cultivation after slash and burn. Huma, Jami, and Reuma refer to the different stages of shifting cultivation. During the first year of Huma, swidden rice (Oryza sativa L.) is majorly planted. One to three years after rice harvest, vegetables are usually planted when the trees are naturally regenerated. This stage is called Jami (vegetable stage). During the following 3 to 4 years, it is the stage of secondary forest, called Reuma. The fruits and wild plants are produced without maintenance during' Reuma. Thus, the land might be reused as shifting cultivation after 8 years. In Jami, there are numerous useful plants in the understorey. Thus, soil has been preserved with understorey vegetation and the dried straws of harvested rice. Vegetation in Reuma consists of Paraserianthes falcataria and fruit trees in the upstorey, banana plants, Noni in the middle storey and vegetables and wild useful plants in the understorey. Vegetation has been regenerated from the under storey to the up storey; a multilayered structure has been maintained under such a system. Traditional agroforestry in Baduy community consists of various types of land use and the cycling uses of ecosystem of the soil have been accomplished, which result in the soil preservation and the productive agricultural and forestry production.
Language: English
Subfield: Forestry
Domain: Life Sciences
SDGs: Life on land, Zero hunger
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2304164754