Soil bioengineering for sustainable coffee farming in Way Besai sub-watersheds, Lampung, Indonesia

Abstract

Soil bioengineering is part of vegetative land conservation activities, including covering all use of plants to maintain the carrying capacity of the land. The sustainability of coffee farming achievement in the upstream watershed area is closely related to the application of soil bioengineering technology. This study conducted to identify the recent studies of soil bioengineering technology and its application in coffee farming toward increasing the land productivity in the upstream watershed. The research location is a smallholder coffee plantation upstream of the Way Besay sub-watershed, spread over 3 sub-districts, Air Hitam, Way Tenong, and Sumber Jaya sub-District, West Lampung, Lampung, Indonesia. Coffee farmers as many as 167 people as respondents. The data analysis method used exploration of the applicability of soil bioengineering technology at the micro-level. The mapping of the role of soil bioengineering trace using the VosViewer tool. The results of the analysis show that the readiness level application of soil bioengineering technology in coffee farming includes the production and use of organic fertilizers made from local materials, the use of mulch as soil cover, agroforestry with a variety of tall canopy plants/MPTS, the planting of multiple cropping (planting various yielding crops), and plant diversification with alley planting. Soil bioengineering technology has a very high potential to increase land productivity to support sustainable coffee production in the upstream area of the Lampung watershed.