Strategy to improving community economic through on-farm agroforestry using community forestry scheme in KPH Yogyakarta

Abstract

The enhancement of land productivity using the agroforestry mechanism with the scheme of community forestry program has been practiced as a strategy to improve the economic growth of the community surrounding Kesatuan Pengelolaan Hutan (KPH) or Forest Management Unit of Yogyakarta. This approach is expected to become the solution in reducing deforestation and degradation as impacts of the decreasing quality of forest resources. Forest co-management with the community through a commodity diversification scheme has been practiced for several years. The objective of this research is to understand the economic profile of the farmers’ households who have become part of the program using several parameters. These parameters include the financial feasibility of the agroforestry scheme, the economic contribution from on-farm and off-farm income to farmers’ total income in a specified period, and the discrepancy between farmers’ income, and income per capita as initial input to measure the social-economic level in regional basis. From 100 respondents interviewed, we could provide the following information: (a) the farmers as respondents are categorized into four land share areas, namely (a) ≤ 0.25 Ha (b) 0.26-0.50 Ha (c) 0.51-0.60 Ha and (d) 0.61-1.00 Ha. The average income in Gunungkidul District for (a) Production forest is 1,612,500 IDR (b) Conservation forest is 1,893,750 IDR while the average income in Kulon Progo District for (a) Production forest is 1,568,250 IDR and (b) Conservation forest is 1,612,500 IDR. The income from areas managed by the farmers as stated above represent the economic contribution from the on-farm and off-farm income of the program. The income contribution for farmers from agroforestry within the research remains low (<10%), and the income discrepancies calculated using the Gini Ratio coefficient are (a) 0.38-0.42 for Gunungkidul District and (b) 0.34-0.46 for Kulon Progo District. Both of the regions studied have low to moderate discrepancy levels.