Oil Palm Agroforestry as an Alternative towards Inclusive Oil Palm Production

Abstract

Oil palm has been widely adopted and cultivated as monoculture plantations in Indonesia. Research suggests that these monoculture practices have led to adverse impacts both on natural and human systems and smallholder farmers have been severely impacted by these unsustainable practices. This chapter aims to analyze how oil palm agroforestry (OPAF) has been adopted by smallholder farmers in the Jambi and Central Kalimantan provinces of Indonesia as part of the social forestry (SF) program to solve the tenure-related conflict in the designated forest areas which are disturbed by monoculture oil palm plantations managed by smallholder farmers. This chapter shows that although oil palm is widely adopted as monoculture plantations for the sake of high yielding, smallholder farmers tend to adopt OPAF to maintain the stability of household incomes amidst the uncertainty of oil palm price in the global market and secure their tenurial access to the designated forest lands. Their perception of OPAF is influenced by their knowledge and determines their decision in adopting OPAF. However, peer pressure and external supports also play important roles in accelerating the adoption of OPAF. More efforts on evidence and knowledge production, communication with stakeholders, and expert backstopping are needed to accelerate the adoption of OPAF.