Livelihood strategies and land use system dynamics in Gorontalo

The project ‘Agroforestry and forestry in Sulawesi: linking knowledge with action’ (AgFor Sulawesi) project is being implemented in three provinces of Sulawesi, Indonesia (South Sulawesi, Southeast Sulawesi and Gorontalo) from 2011 to 2016 to enhance agroforestry and forestry livelihood systems in rural communities. The baseline survey reported in this document was conducted to support the project. The main objectives were to study the general characteristics of community livelihoods, local farming systems and land-use systems, based on community perspectives. The assessment of land-use dynamics, farming systems and livelihood strategies in two districts of Gorontalo was considered essential for designing the next phase of the project. The livelihood baseline study addressed both community and household levels. The results of group discussion show the dynamics of land use and diversity of livelihood strategies among village typologies. Maize and vegetables, as well as agroforestry based systems of plantation crops such as coconut, cacao and clove dominate the land use in all the village typologies. In general, community livelihood strategies are dominated by maize, vegetables, and agroforestry tree based products. Further analysis of household-level information indicates that the number of male and female household members are relatively similar in all villages in all typologies and the majority of household heads were from the Gorontalo tribe. The educational level in Typology 4 villages, especially in Modelidu, is the lowest compared to other respondents. The level of education in the other typologies are relatively similar, with female education level slightly lower than men. Land tenure status is relatively equal for most typologies, the land owned together by husband and wife - in others the husband has the greatest responsibility. The cultivated land is generally located on private land in the village (Typology 1, Typology 4 and Typology 5). The others work more land in protected forests and production forests (Typology 2 and Typology 3). Household level analysis also showed that the average annual income per household in Typology 1 is lower compared with other typologies. The main source of income for farmers is also different for each village: Typology 1 sourced from maize yields and agricultural wages; Typology 2 from nonagricultural wages and maize; Typology 3 from maize, chili and agricultural wages; Typology 4 from agroforestry gardens; and Typology 5 from coconut and non-agricultural wages. Sources of income from agriculture (58-88%) is higher than non-agriculture (12-42%) in all the village typologies. The income per capita of farmers in Typology 1 is lower than in other typologies. Meanwhile farmers in Typology 4 are comparatively the most affluent: revenue per capita per day of farmers in Typology 4 almost doubled compared to farmers in other typologies.

---

• View source

---

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5716/WP16157.PDF

---

Altmetric score:

Dimensions Citation Count: