Improving smallholder farming systems in Imperata areas of Southeast Asia

Abstract

THIS PUBLICATION CONTAINS a report of a research project: Improving smallholder farming systems in Imperata areas of Southeast Asia: a bioeconomic modelling approach. The project was formally a collaborative effort between the Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies, the Australian National University (CRES, ANU), Canberra, the SEAMEO Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA), Laguna Philippines, and the Centre for Agro-Socioeconomic Research (CASER), Bogor, Indonesia. However, many additional collaborations were undertaken, as evident from the list of contributors. The project received substantial funding assistance from the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR). The introduction to the report outlines the nature of the Imperata problem and the methodology used. Imperata is essentially restricted to upland areas, since it does not coexist with lowland rice farming. Section 1 contains a bioeconomic analysis of traditional smallholder ‘shifting cultivation’ farming systems where the fallow is Imperata. Section 2 contains a series of case study descriptions of successful tree growing by smallholders on Imperata grasslands. The core modelling work of the project is reported in Sections 3 and 4. Various tree-based interventions are modelled with and without an animal component. Some of these modelled farming systems are already in place in farmers’ fields. In these cases, possible management or policy interventions analysed with the models can point the way to productive and economic improvements. In other cases, the farming systems modelled are ‘experimental’ in nature. Imperata grows on uplands of various slopes, but some special attention is given to Imperata on PREFACE Show more