Chapter 15 - Prospect of Sustainable Peatland Agriculture for Supporting Food Security and Mitigating Green House Gas Emission in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia

Abstract

Recently, agricultural production has become important both in terms of climate change and food security. A rapidly increasing world population leads to increased demand for food. Indonesia, which is the fourth most populous country of the world, also faces the challenge to increase food production for food security. A number of issues concerning food security also require finding a comprehensive solution together, including an increase in the production of agricultural commodities such as soybeans, maize, and rice toward self-sufficiency, then a sustainable self-sufficiency, and eventually achieving a surplus of 10 million tons of rice. Marginal land such as peatland and upland have the potential to be used for producing food, even though the productivity is low. Using marginal area for producing food has consequences in terms of technology innovation to improve land productivity and to reduce environmental degradation. The Mega Rice Project (MRP) in Central Kalimantan has a source record on the peatland agriculture. Without proper planning, construction of a 4400km canal caused peatland destruction in this area. More than 1.4 million hectare of peatland forest became drained and degraded. Degraded peatlands caused by MRP should be reforested and rehabilitated to get the intended benefits to the local farmers in terms of food security and also reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) as a target of the government of Indonesia. This chapter reviews the prospects of sustainably reclaiming peatlands for agriculture purposes to support food security and also address to a certain extent the GHG emissions from peatlands. Strategy for sustainable development, in terms of supporting food security and mitigating GHG emissions, emphasizes the use of degraded peatland in the former MRP as an illustration. Food crop area and plantation area should be set up in the appropriate proportion to optimize the benefit and maximize the reduction in GHG emissions. The simulation model shows that the target of reducing GHG emissions can be achieved in sustainable peatland agriculture while simultaneously supporting food security by improving food production and improving farmer income.