Improving the productivity of smallholder rubber agroforestry systems, maintaining biodiversity and sustaining soil and water ressources: sustainable alternatives. A proposal to the USAID Natural ressources management Project phase II Jakarta, Indonesia

GAPKINDO - IDN, CIRAD-CP - FRA, ICRAF [World Agroforestry] - IDN. 1997. Improving the productivity of smallholder rubber agroforestry systems, maintaining biodiversity and sustaining soil and water ressources: sustainable alternatives. A proposal to the USAID Natural ressources management Project phase II Jakarta, Indonesia. s.l. : s.n., 31 p.

Résumé : Indonesia is currently poised to become the leading natural rubber producer in the world. The future competitive advantage of Indonesia in natural rubber will derive mainly from the smallholder sector. The rubber smallholder sector comprises 84 % of the total rubber area and 75 % of the rubber production. Currently, only 13% of the smallholders have been reached by rubber development projects based on a full (and costly) technological package. Another 10 to 20 % of non-project farmers close to the projects have obtained indirect benefit from the technical information, credit and improved planting material (Rubber clones) promoted in these existing projects. But 70% of the rubber farmers do not have access to technical innovations. Most of these farmers rely on jungle rubber as their main source of income, an agroforestry system with a very low cost of establishment but also with low productivity (unselected rubber seedlings). Jungle rubber advantages in terms -of biodiversity conservation and environmental benefits (soil and water conservation) are now recognized and should be kept in rubber based agroforestry systems. The aim SRAP is to develop a new approach to assist this vast proportion of smallholder rubber farmers since 1994 to enhance their productivity conserving these environmental benefits. SRAP has identify the components of several improved rubber agroforestry systems (RAS) that maintain the economically and ecologically advantageous aspects of jungle rubber and ahd experiences them with farmers since 3 years. The components of the improved RAS will diversify farm income, require only low to medium input levels, and elevate farm income through the use of clones and associated perennial crops (eg . timber, fruits, pulp trees and rattan). Biodiversity and environmental concerns are addressed through these alternative systems as being very close to that of farmers currently do. Rubber-based agroforestry systems have a structure and function very similar to secondary forests, and retain much higher biodiversity than monoculture rubber systems. Meantime, improving productivity through such systems means decreasing the pressure of smallholders on protected areas (conservation areas) as well as developping economically sustainable alternatives requiring a small area per farmer (2 to 4 hectares). The general project objective is to identify the components of RAS that enhances the production of rubber by smallholders (while increasing and stabilizing farm income) and those which contributes to biodiversity and natural resources conservation. SRAP promote an alternative model for rubber development projects, complementary to the current rubber monoculture development approach (TCSDP/TCSSP project approach). The farming systems research conducted by the project will identify an operational typology of smallholder rubber farmers to target rubber agroforestry technical recommendations to the major farm environments. A network of on-farm trials plots has been established and will be completed to evaluate and demonstrate the prospective advantages of these improved systems to smallholders in major rubber producing areas in Sumatra and West Kalimantan with emphasis on timber/rubber association. The trials will enable the development and release of technical recommendations that fit a wide range of non-project farmer situations and strategies. Biodiversity evolution in RAS systems will be recorded to assess the ability of such systems to maintain a certain level of biodiversity and its use by local population. The development of rubber agroforestry systems is unique among rubber development options. They offer opportunities to provide a wide range of benefits to rubber farmers, and to the country and the world (through environmental advantages and lower prices). The basic proposition is to develop ways to evolve rubber jungles into a complex agroforestry system that sustains both environmental conservation and rubber farmers' incomes. The project is a major opportunity for partners to identify alternatives that can play a leading role in accelerating technological changes taking into account environmental concerns with a sustainable natural ressource management.

Classification Agris : F08 - Systèmes et modes de culture
K10 - Production forestière
E80 - Économie familiale et artisanale
P35 - Fertilité du sol

Source : Cirad - Agritrop (https://agritrop.cirad.fr/575680/)

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