Farmers Household Strategy in Land Conversion Dynamics (Case Study of Penrang District, Wajo Regency, South Sulawesi)

Abstract

The exploding demand for palm oil in the world market makes oil palm expansion in several tropical countries increasingly increasing, especially in Indonesia. The phenomenon of land conversion that occurred in Wajo Regency was caused by the entry of plantation companies which resulted in the shifting of livelihood systems and livelihood strategies. Changing agricultural land into an oil palm plantation area with a partnership system has an impact on the limited community in managing and accessing their land. Farming activities for both rice and other commodities such as cashew and others as well as cattle grazing activities cannot be done on agricultural lands that have been partnered for oil palm plantations. This condition triggered shocks to the farmer's household livelihood system. So that in the process the community carries out various adaptation of livelihood strategies. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the livelihood strategy of the community in meeting household needs before and after the conversion of agricultural land to oil palm plantations. This study uses snowball sampling and in-depth interviews conducted in the village of Taddangpalie, Penrang District. The results showed that the livelihood strategies of farmer households before conversion which had the largest percentage were survival strategies (53%), consolidation (30%), accumulative (17%) with the agricultural basis. After land conversion occurs there is a decrease in the survival strategy phase which is to be (48%) because some households switch the consolidation phase by (40%), and the accumulative phase still remains at the percentage, with the dominant basis being agriculture and non-agriculture. Vulnerability in the form of shock, trend, and equality is overcome by two types of strategies namely survival strategies and consolidation strategies by adopting human capital, social capital, natural capital, and financial capital.