Household adaptation address strategy in dealing with the ecological establishment in the expansion of palm plantation in Mamuju Central District, Indonesia

Abstract

Oil palm plantation expansion occurs massively in several regions in Indonesia, one of them is in Mamuju Tengah Regency. The area of oil palm plantations in 2014 covering 25,220 hectares and in 2016 increased to 45,562 Ha. The impact of the expansion of oil palm plantations is the occurrence of ecological vulnerability that the soil becomes so dry that it is not suitable anymore planted with rice and melted the number of pest populations of rats that attack rice plants so that farmers often experience crop failure. The condition is a pressure that destabilizes the livelihood of farm households in Mamuju Tengah Regency. Agricultural data shows the decrease of harvest area of paddy in Central Mamuju regency since 2012 as wide as 14,276 Ha to 11,189 Ha in 2016. This study aims to find out the adaptation strategy that farmers do in facing the ecological vulnerability behind the expansion of oil palm plantation. Data are analyzed using the DFID sustainability framework that provides an overview of the context of vulnerability, livelihood assets, organizations, structures and policies affecting, livelihood strategies, and livelihood outcomes from communities. The results showed that farmers' households had several strategies to survive, among others, namely: selling rice fields, converting rice fields into oil palm plantations, giving them land to work on others while doing other work such as collecting grains of fruit bunches or call "brondolan" and grazing cattle.