Abstract
The research aimed to (1) describe changing biomass during the burning process, (2) characterize the nutrient loss due to biomass burning, (3) analyse the financial loss of nutrient transfer, and (4) compare farmer’s income among three land typologies. This research was conducted in tidal wetlands Talang Sepucuk, OKI District, South Sumatra with a slope of 0-3 %. Three selected land typologies (B, C and D) are located in the area adjacent to one another with distance &lt; 1.200 m. The natural vegetation data and paddy yields was recorded by squares method, i.e. 25 x 25 m at each study site, dried and weighed and analyzed in the laboratory. The research resulted that the nutrient transfer due to biomass burning was in range of Rp 49.98-51.62 Mills/ha/year. The farmer’s income of the sonor system was very small (Rp 3.61-3.97 Mills/ha/year), it was only about 7 % of the total financial loss of nutrient transfer). The remaining value (93 %) is beyond the capacity of farmers to harvest natural resources. This value (93 %) is classified as one of the biggest negative impact of the sonor system to be paid by the all people.<strong> </strong>The government must intervene to make the public policy by giving direct subsidy to farmers NOT to burn biomass in the sonor system with compensation of at least 2 (two) times of farmer’s income from the sonor system (around Rp 7.66 Mill. Rp/ha/year). If farmers still continue to apply the sonor system by using fire, then there is very little opportunity for us to manage the nutrients loss due to biomass burning. The preventive and proactive approach is the best way how to manage the land resources.
Highlights
Sonor means 'nalak', allowing or not taken care of
At the moment most of the heat energy was released during the biomass burning, the nutrients are transferred into the atmosphere
The nutrient transfer due to biomass burning was in range of Rp 49.98-51.62 million/ha/year
Summary
Sonor (language of Palembang) means 'nalak', allowing or not taken care of. It is mostly done by local farmers in Kalimantan and South Sumatra. This system has been adopted in peatlands, especially in Talang Sepucuk, OKI District. The main purpose of the sonor system is generally used to reduce weeds (unwanted species of plants), to control pests and diseases, to stimulate the yields, to reduce crop residues, to clear land cheaply, quickly and efficiently with minimal labor requirements (Page et al, 2010). The main problem of the sonor system is to generate the smoke, to accelerate peat subsidence and to change ecosystem as well as to deplete all land resources
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