Biodiversity and ecological phenomena in pranatamongso calendar: basic knowledge and goal for optimizing of crop production in javanese farmers

Abstract

Human living dynamic is a complex of technology and society system in which science, technology, and also cultural beliefs are developed and have been growing together toward a life sustainability. Hence, cultural beliefs and practices hold by a distinct tribes or society in Indonesia represent their values which could be influenced by their environmental factors. Geophysical characteristics, climatology dynamics and the presence of living organisms mainly plants and animals are some essential sources of their cultural-based scientific knowledge and may represent as an ethno-ecology view. For Javanese farmers, as an example, this cultural-based science knowledge and practice have been developed and well-known implemented for their agriculture system by which the season cyclic (dry and rain) as well as animals ecological dynamics may determine the way of farming they have been carried out. This ethno-ecology view known as Pranotomongso which considers the traditional knowledge based on a careful observation on climate dynamics and its factors, such as sun and moon positions, or wind intensity, also their impact on plants and animal interactions in ecosystem. A deep-understanding of Pranotomongso leads an effort to optimizing and sustaining the crop production by maintaining and controlling both plants and animal diversity. As a cultural-based calendar, could Pranotomongso be utilised for examining the biodiversity information as well as crop sustainability? Regarded to this basic question, this paper provides an insight discourse based on the way Pranotomongso is developed in term of scientific perspectives, such as rainy and dry season calculations, and both the plants and animal diversity existence.