Oil palm agroforestry: an alternative to enhance farmers’ livelihood resilience

Abstract

Oil palm has been rapidly expanding in Indonesia and becoming an important export commodity for the country. However, oil palm production has been promoted only as a monoculture, and this has led to adverse impacts on natural and social systems. At the same time, the demand for oil palm products is likely to increase, and therefore there is an urgency to find alternatives for more sustainable oil palm production. We argue that the monoculture system is not necessarily to be the only way to produce oil palm and this article aims at analysing alternatives for oil palm production systems beyond monoculture with agroforestry as the main focus. We visited oil palm agroforestry practiced by smallholders in Jambi and Central Kalimantan and asked questions about their motivation in adopting agroforestry, farm management, value chain and institutions. We found that smallholders have various motivations in adopting oil palm agroforestry but improving their household resilience becomes the most prominent reason. The adoption of perennial species, oil palm and other crops in the farms may improve the diversity of the farms and thus the diversity of household income. However, smallholders encounter problems on productivity because of the competitions in spaces. Lack in the knowledge of species selection, quality of planting materials and spacing arrangement have influenced oil palm productivity. In addition, market access also becomes a crucial issue when their farms are located in remote areas. There is currently no institutions, both government and non-government which promote and facilitate the adoption of oil palm agroforestry although this system has been practiced especially by smallholders. We suggest that oil palm agroforestry system needs to be further investigated not only regarding financial benefits for the smallholders but also its social acceptability and barriers of adoption as well as its potentials in contributing to the improvement of ecosystem functions.