Farmer Tree Planting Barriers to Sustainable Forest Management - Smallholder Tree Growing for Rural Development and Environmental Services - page 420

The complexity of producing quality products tailored to markets is also illustrated
by in the case of Gunung Kidul, Central Java. This area was heavily deforested in the
1930s and at the bottom of the 'inverse J' (Fig. 20.1) till the 1960s. Then a market-
oriented land rehabilitation process started where the state forestry company (Perum
Perhutani) established Teak ( Tectona grandis ) and mahogany ( Swietenia macrophylla ),
and smallholders focused on Paraserianthes falcataria . A farm inventory showed that
74 percent of the trees on smallholder farms are teak and mahogany; 22 percent are
short-rotation timber species; the remainders are fruit, spice and Multi-Purpose Tree
Species (MPTS) species. In 1998, in North Lampung 80 percent of homegarden trees
were fruit, vegetable, medicinal and MPTS species; 14 percent were planted short-
rotation timber; four percent natural regeneration and two percent planted premium
quality timber species (Roshetko et al. 2002). In these areas, farmer interest in timber
farming is increasing in response to access to better quality germplasm (species, prov-
enances, clones and seed source) and increasing market demand. These farmers can
maximize profitability by processing fast-growing timber species ( Paraserianthes fal-
cataria ) trees into boards or planks, but premium quality species ( Tectona grandis ) are
better sold to producers as standing trees (Roshetko and Yuliyanti 2003; Tukan et al.
2004). Unfortunately, some farmers process high-value trees into low-quality planks
in an unsuccessful attempt to gain higher profits. Other smallholders sell fast-growing
timber as standing trees, similar to what small-scale timber producers in Sweden,
Finland or Australia do. Most often smallholder farmers serve only as the producers of
raw materials. Market agents perform the important roles of linking farmers to proces-
sors and manufacturers who transform the raw materials (commodities) into finished
goods (products or services). Local and regional dealers serve very important roles -
collecting, sorting, grading and transporting raw materials. One of the largest risks
reported by middlemen is unreliable quality and quantity of smallholder products. This
uncertainty, plus the time and expense required to interact with numerous smallholder,
are usually cited as the reason dealers pay low rates to individual farmers. The absence
of price incentives at farmer level for higher quality products, however, maintains the
status quo on quality (Roshetko and Yuliyanti 2003). Where forest-derived timber is
still abundant, farm-grown trees cannot be profitably marketed (Box 20.5).
This constraint on the contribution of agroforestry to sustainable forest manage-
ment can be overcome, if public domain access to market information improves. By
understanding market linkages and interactions, it should be possible, at relatively
low cost, to improve smallholder farmers' livelihoods by focusing their agrofor-
estry production towards market opportunities (Roshetko and Yuliyanti 2002; see
also next chapter).
Box 20.5 East Kalimantan (Indonesia): not yet ready for farmer-grown trees
North Lampung (Sumatra) and areas in East Kalimantan have similar
topography, soils and climate, but are in a different phase of the inverse J of
Fig. 20.1. Former transmigration villages in both areas have similar land hold-
ings per household, and in both most of the land surrounding the village is
(continued)