Developing Local Wisdom as the Basic of Integrated Extension Model in Paddy Cultivation at Lowland Ecosystem in South Sumatra

摘要

The raising and awareness of local wisdom recently, came from the raise of global socio-economic development which accompanied by a variety of environmental damages. In the future, the society will be faced with the increasing of land resources degradation and the increasing of environment devastation. On the other hand, the low capacity of the farmers themselves as well as resource and infrastructure capacity will lead to the difficulty of farmer’s adaptation to these conditions. Agricultural extension in Indonesia, since the end of the 1990s was experiencing a huge organizational change. As a result, the extension service institutions, especially in rural areas are very weak. What is needed is an integrated model of education that can enhance the capacity of farmers to manage paddy production in lowland ecosystem. For more than a hundred years, local farmers in lowland ecosystem utilized lowland ecosystem for paddy farming. Paddy is the main crop that can be cultivated in almost all types of lowland area. By understanding the environmental conditions and learn from experience, farmers have successfully developed a lowland into fertile and environmentally friendly agricultural areas. This paper is intended to describe the local wisdom in paddy farming at lowland ecosystems as the basis for the development of an integrated extension model research.