The views of forestry employees on the cultivation of food crops in forest areas: a case study in Central Java

Abstract

The environment and forestry sectors are expected to contribute to achieving food sovereignty. However, the cultivation of food crops in forest areas for commercial purposes is still limited since incommodity nomenclature, the food cropsareonly as crops. The objective of this study was to find out the views of forestry employees in Central Java on the cultivation of food crops in forest areas. Data was collected through a survey and analyzed through a descriptive quantitative method. The results showed the views of forestry employees were as follows. First, food crops need to be cultivated in forest areas on a large scale to increase forest benefits for communities and companies. Food crops such as paddy and maize were cultivated using an intercropping system during forest regeneration, shade-resistant food crops such as coffee and porang were cultivated under forest stands and fruit crops such as durian and mangosteen were cultivated in a mixture with woody trees. Second, foods obtained from the forests were recorded in statistics of environment and forestry and accounted for as contributions of environment and forestry sector. Therefore, the forests need to be managed for wood and food production to support food sovereignty.