Abstract
Agroforestry systems can be considered as sustainability concept. They are able to provide ecological, economical and sociological benefit. In order to help policy makers and stakeholder decide what action should be taken to make agroforestry sustainable, the identification of the sustainability status is needed. This study aimed to evaluate the sustainability status of agroforestry systems in Timor Island, one of the islands in Nusa Tenggara Timur Province, eastern Indonesia. The data was collected through combination of field observation and interviews with 38 respondents with purposively selected in three dominant agroforestry systems, namely: mixed-garden, mamar, traditional agroforestry and silvopasture. Multidimensional Scaling approach was used to analyse the sustainability status of agroforestry systems based on five dimensions (ecology, economy, social, institutional and technology) as well as 26 attributes. The attribute valuation was in ordinal scale based on sustainable criteria of each dimension. The criteria were ranked from 0 (the lowest) to 3 (the highest). The assessment of sustainability status was classified into: not sustainable (0-25%), less sustainable (25-50%), moderate sustainable (50-75%) and good sustainable (75-100%). The result revealed that the sustainability of all agroforestry systems were in moderate sustainable. This study found that, only 15 out of 26 attributes were categorized as sensitive attributes. Such data and information are important for the agroforestry farmer or other related stakeholder for improving appropriate strategies or action in sustainable agroforestry management.
Highlights
The combination of dry climatic conditions, lack of water supply, thin soil solum and nutrient -poor soil conditions and low technology inputs, has made the Province of Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT) often faced with the problem of low land productivity [1] which leads to poverty and food insecurity
In forestry sector, by using 5 dimensions with 18 attribute found that the sustainability status of privately managed forest in Bogor was classif ied as moderate sustainable [13]
A multidimensional scaling (MDS) approach can be used as an alternative method for evaluating the sustainability status of agroforestry systems in Timor
Summary
The combination of dry climatic conditions, lack of water supply, thin soil solum and nutrient -poor soil conditions and low technology inputs, has made the Province of Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT) often faced with the problem of low land productivity [1] which leads to poverty and food insecurity. Optimizing of agroforestry function to support food security is one of the efforts to address the problems of poverty and food insecurity. This effort is feasible considering that NTT has long been known to have a high diversity of agroforestry systems [1]. The agroforestry of Mamar in Timor Island [4], [5], [6] and Kaliwu in Sumba Island [7] ca n be cla ssified a s tra ditiona l a groforestry, while. In a ddition to tra ditiona l a groforestry, it were a lso found other introduced a groforestry systems in Ama ra si (Timor) in the 1930s, in Sikka (Flores) in the 1960s a nd Ea st Sumba in the 1980s [1]. The variety of agroforestry systems is probably due to the diversity of cultura l, socia l, economic a nd geogra phica l conditions tha t comprise ma ny isla nds
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