An Agro-ecological Approach for Sustainable Farming in Langge Sub-watershed, Bolango Watershed, Gorontalo, Indonesia

Abstract

Sustainable farming is an integral part of sustainable development, a farming system which preserves water resources, land resources, and plant resources in acceptable and suitable ways economically, socially, and environmentally. The effects of rapid population growth and increasing natural resources exploitation will not only lead to increasing deforestation as human needs more areas for farming, but also lead to decreasing quality in our environmental resources, such as river pollution, erosion and sedimentation. The study aims at examining the development of sustainable farming in dry land areas of Langge sub-watershed through an agro-ecological approach. In this present study, land unit was derived from overlaid of geological, geomorphological, topography, and land-use maps of the area. There were 12 land units found in the study area. In General, the suitability of land for food crops and vegetables in Langge sub-watershed which is highly suitable (S1) was 58 ha (0.9%). Then, 1,957 ha (33%) of the land belongs to moderately suitable (S2) and marginally suitable (S3) with oxygen availability, rooting condition, and erosion hazard as the limiting factors. The rest 4,307 ha (68%) of the land were not suitable (N) with erosion hazard as the limiting factor. The areas which can be optimized for planting food crops and vegetables are 740.23 ha, consisting of (1) 650.52 ha for food crops and (2) 89.71 for vegetables. The value of R/C ratio on paddy field, maize, and peanuts was 1.81, 1.16 and 1.29 respectively. For vegetables, the value of R/C ratio was 1.79; 1,28, 1,33; 1,42 and 1,21 for onion, chili, mungbean, pickpea, and eggplants. The commodities having highest revenue for food crops category was paddy field as much as 7,163,000 IDR /ha/season, while for vegetables was onion as much as 22,470,000 IDR/ha/season. However, considering the optimal land area and land suitability, then the commodity having highest potential to develop and economically feasible are paddy field and maize.

Keyword : Agro-ecology, land suitability, sustainable farming.