Environmental services of agriculture and farmers' practices worth rewarding

Agricultural functions in producing food, timber, fiber, and variousother marketable products have long been known by policy makersand the population at large. Other functions of the agriculturallandscape, however, such as environmental services, food security,employment of about 40% of the 99 million labor force in Indonesia,buffer of the country's economy at times of crisis, and maintenance ofrural amenities get less recognition than they deserve. This paperreviews environmental services as part of the multifunctionality ofagriculture and discusses whether rewarding farmers for thoseservices is justifiable. Discussion is focused on the major agriculturalsystems including lowland rice, annual upland farming, smallholderplantation, and monoculture estate, as well as on conservationpractices within the systems. The main indicators discussed includesoil erosion and sedimentation, flood mitigation, carbonsequestration, and biodiversity. As forest is converted to agriculturallands, some of its environmental services disappear. The nature of thesucceeding agricultural systems determine the degree of recovery ofthe services. Further conversion of agriculture to industrial andsettlement areas, results in subsequent and mostly irreversibledisappearance of agricultural environmental services. Lowland ricefields can filter sediment from the surface flows in a landscape andcontribute to flood mitigation; two important functions in areasupstream of flood-prone areas. Smallholder plantations, characterizedby complex agroforestry systems, sustain various positive functionsincluding erosion control, flood mitigation, carbon sequestration, andbiodiversity. Monoculture tree-based systems are low in biologicaldiversity but they can still contribute in sequestering carbon, floodmitigation and erosion control. Annual crop-based farming systems37SingkarakReport_rev2_color.qxd 1/31/2005 2:18 PM Page 37have relatively low erosion control, flood mitigation, biodiversity andcarbon stock. Intensive vegetable farming, being mostly distributedon steep slopes with high chemical inputs, threatens water quality inthe area downstream and may contribute to sedimentation dependingon the overall filter functions of the catchment. With the high andincreasing population pressure, the demands for using the lands,including the less suitable ones for agriculture as well as forsettlement and industry, also increase and the environment is moreand more threatened. Therefore, the environmental services becomescarcer and more precious. Farmers' services in the forms ofpracticing environmentally benign farming systems andimplementation of conservation practices such as life fences, grassstrip, and modification of micro relief (sediment pits, terraces, furrow-ridging) within a fragile environment deserve recognition andrewards from the beneficiaries. Furthermore, the government canincrease effectiveness of incentives for two-pronged (economic andenvironment) practices, for example, by realignment of the funds ofnational land rehabilitation movement.

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