Perception and adaptation of agroforestry farmers in Upper Citarum Watershed to climate change

Abstract

Agroforestry is a form of an agricultural system that is adaptive to climate change. Based on the institutional form, the farming system developed under the social forestry program is agroforestry. This form of agroforestry is the essential capital for farmers to establish in their cultivated lands further. This study aim to determine agroforestry farmers’ perceptions in the Upper Citarum Watershed on climate change and the adaptation activities. The sample farmers are a sub-set of farmer households sample in the socio-economic survey conducted by ICASEPS – ACIAR in the collaborative research in 2019. The reliability of the data on variables that reflect farmers’ perceptions of adverse shocks experienced, which directly or indirectly related to climate changes, is tested with Cronbach’s Alpha. Data analysis is performed by cross-tabulation, while multiple regressions are used to determine the effect of social forestry cultivated areas on farmers’ income. The results show that more than 55 percent of farmers participating in social forestry say that since the last ten years climate patterns are increasingly unpredictable. The most negative impacts of climate change impacts are indirect effects which are pests and diseases. Popular adaptation are reactive ones, namely increasing the use of pesticides and more intensive use of inorganic fertilizers. Farmers adaptation which are more synergistic with mitigation such as organic farming or cultivation of perennial crops are still relatively low. The increase in the arable land area due to social forestry has significantly increased farmer’s household income. Referring to this phenomenon, conducive policies to increase farmer participation in these adaptation actions are needed.