Smallholder Teak Production Systems in Gunungkidul, Indonesia

InEastand Central Java, Indonesia, smallholder farmers have adopted tree productionsystems as the best use of marginal agricultural uplands. The systems are frequently intercropped but dominated by trees, with teak as the major species component.Farmers usually grow teak from seedlings from naturalregeneration,without any attemptat selection for growth rate, wood quality or forms. Farmer surveys and an inventory of tree gardens were carried out in Gunungkidul District, Yogyakarta, on Java Islandto establish the importance of teak to farm families and to identify the silviculture practicescurrentlyused by farmers.Results indicate that the few farmers who practiceany form of silviculturalmanagement and smallholder teak production systems yield limitedquantitiesandquality of timber. Smallholder management practices, together with limited market knowledge and restrictive timberregulation policy, impede the profitability of smallholder teak systems. Adoptingimproved silvicultural practices is a step towards improving returns from smallholder teak systems. Those practicesshould be integrated into the existing smallholder teak systems. A related challenge is to build smallholders’ marketlinkages and improve their financing options, with efforts currently ongoing.

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