Prof. Sitanala Arsyad: Make the Best Use of Peat Lands for Poverty Reduction and Regional Development Acceleration
The controversy over the utilization of peat lands for agriculture has been around for a long time, starting from the opening of large-scale peat land at the beginning of the new order era in 1970s. It heightened again after the signing of a Letter of Intent between the Government of Indonesia and the Government of Norway Kingdom, which requires a two-year moratorium on the concession of opening peat forest and natural forest commencing from 1 January 2011.
"One advantage of peat land utilization is the positive impact on an increased income and prosperity of the people, but the opponents shows that its negative impact on the environment is greater than its positive effect and demands that the utilization of peat lands for agriculture be stopped. The controversy is increasingly not coming to its end because all parties argue only at the macro or global level," said Sitanala Arsyad, the Professor (emeritus) of Faculty of Soil and Water Conservation, Faculty of Agriculture IPB, as a keynote speaker in the National Workshop on Sustainable Use of Peat Lands for Poverty Reduction and Regional Development Acceleration at IICC (28/10).
According to him, socio-economic development, and reduction / elimination of poverty must begin with the increase of production and employment. For an agrarian country like Indonesia, an increased agricultural production must become the mainstay. It can be achieved in two main lines: namely, increasing land productivity and efficiency of post-harvest activities, and expanding of crop area by opening new land and uncultivated land (land abandoned).
There are different types of land available in Indonesia. In Java, almost all land is of mineral soils formed from decaying rocks, the various provinces in Sumatra have land of mineral soils, while other provinces such as Riau, Jambi and South Sumatra have vast land composed of the organic materials, called peat land. A land with a layer of organic materials accumulated on the surface is categorized as a peat land if its C-organic content is more than 18% and its depth reaches 50 cm or more. In Kalimantan and Papua, it is even much larger in size.
The various sensitive properties of peat land to environmental changes have caused it to receive great attention and need greater care in its utilization. The roles of peat are as absorber and keeper of carbon, a source of greenhouse gas emissions, land fire threat, hydrology (irreversible drying) and a decrease in the surface.
However, it cannot be denied that the many activities in the exploitation of peat land for food and horticulture, industrial crops and industrial forest have been successful although there are certainly some failures.
"The total area of peat land in Indonesia is very large. Certainly, it must be productive in its utilization with as minimum as possible of the environmental degradation and greenhouse gas emissions," he hopes. (mtd)
