Conservation agriculture in semi-arid area of Indonesia: lesson learnt to increase maize production and farmers’ awareness on environmental friendly land management

Abstract

Abstract Dominated semi-arid area of East Nusa Tenggara (ENT) is characterized by low and erratic rainfall, poor soil fertility, diverse agro-ecosystem and dominant rocky lands. Crops production within this environment is generally low and uncertain. This paper aims to describe the impacts of Conservation Agriculture (CA) practices in ENT province. The data and information were mainly taken from FAO and IAARD’ CA collaboration research program implemented in ENT during 2014 to 2018. All farmers involved in the programs acknowledge that CA has increased maize productivity and indeed some farmers have able to plant maize twice a year and experienced good harvest even in long drought. Integrated forage into CA based farming in Timor enable farmers to provide enough feed for cattle at least 1 to 2 head/household. Nevertheless, most farmers showed some constraints in implementing and expanding the introduced CA concepts. The main constraint is lack of labor and equipment to make permanent planting hole in dominated rocky land. CA concepts related to permanent cover crops and mulching have not fully implemented due to crops residues mostly used to feed cattle. The complexity of semi-arid environments and indigenous knowledge of local people in managing semi-arid upland agriculture should be taken into consideration in incorporating suitable induced CA.