Distribution of agricultural gumption in various agroecosystem as a strategy to maintain farm household income sustainability

Abstract

The research was conducted in Manggarai District, East Nusa Tenggara Province with the research objectives were to describe (i) existing farming system performance, (ii) planting calender, cropping pattern, and harvesting calender, and (iii) farmer's strategies to manage their farm and income. The district has two agroecosystems, there are dry land and wet climate high land, and dry land and climate and low land. Data was collected from 12 subdistrict in Manggarai district, by using Focus Group Discussion and observation method. The research results showed that farmer's strategyies were (a) growing multy commodities, so agricultural gumption and income distributed along the year, (b) in certain months were household income was supported by several commodities, but in other months were supported by only one commodity even there is no income. In high land zone, there is a range of time that is supported by several commodities, and in the low land zone, there are two supports from several commodities. In the two zones, there are several months with low income, so it is needed to find the other activity such as off farm and nonfarm to get income. The various farming activities which is running by farmers have aims to distribute risks, food security and also maintain agriculture product stability.