DEVELOPING SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE ON TROPICAL PEATLAND: CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS

摘要

Tropical peatland covers 38.317.000 ha of global land area (9% of global peatland area) of which 52.4% are found in Indonesia, and 6.4% are found in Malaysia. These peatlands are considered to be potentially important for future expansion of cropland and, indeed,a sizable proportion has been put into cultivation in Indonesia and Malaysia. Realizing that agricultural utilization of peatland in developing countries of the tropics arises out of necessity, the challenge faced is how to reconcile the pressure for this sectoral development and the need to conserve the fragile ecosystem. Sustainable agriculture is one that is productive and profitable, conserves the natural resource base, and imposes minimal adverse impacts on the environment. The sustainability of an agricultural system can be assessed using biophysical indicators such as productivity, stability, resilience, and adaptability. In the case of tropical peatland, these indicators can be measured in term of crop yield and quality, soil fertility and nutrient balanced sheet, soil loss, greenhouse gas emission and water quality. Evidence from Indonesia and Malaysia strongly indicates that certain agricultural system on the tropical peatland are productive and profitable, and may indeed prove to be sustainable in the long term. The main challenges faced are related to conservation of the peat proper planning and wise management, aided by development of appropriate technologies, the tropical peatland can be used sustainably for selected agricultural system with the understanding that what needs to be conserved is its productive function, and not merely its physical form.