Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
poisons the water and soil, while nitrogen and phosphorus inputs and live-
stock wastes have become major pollutants of surface water, aquifers, and
coastal wetlands and estuaries. These situations are also serious and cause
severe ecological problems in the tropical biological environment, espe-
cially in Indonesia.
With a population of 230 million, Indonesia is the world's fourth most
populous country, and its population is growing at a rate of 1.4% per year.
Agriculture plays a substantial role in the Indonesian economy, involving
about 45% of the population, and accounting for 19% of the gross do-
mestic product and more than 60% of the value of non-oil exports. Over
the last two decades, annual agricultural output has grown by 4% [4]. In
Indonesia, modern farming technologies have kept production apace with
population growth, but major problems with food distribution still plague
many communities and regions.
Indonesia is also a richly bio-diverse tropical agro-ecosystem. About
95% of the land surface of Indonesia is still covered by vegetation, either
as tropical rain forest, woodland, mangrove, agricultural fi elds or grass-
land, which contain a variety of indigenous fl ora and fauna, many of which
are unique species that do not occur in any other place in the world [5].
However, increasing synthetic chemical input to cropland to meet the
increasing demand for food has led to decreasing biodiversity in agricul-
tural areas. The soil management system, which is overly dependent on
chemical fertilizers, has also led to decreasing soil organic matter and soil
quality [6]. Currently, Indonesia has a total of 40,000 hectares under or-
ganic cultivation, about 0.12 percent of its total land area [7].
After the “Green Revolution” program was launched in the late 60s,
the application of chemical fertilizer dramatically increased due to govern-
mental encouragement to achieve food self-suffi ciency. Since then, farm-
ers have been using blended fertilizer (N, P
2
O
5
, and K
2
O) with the rec-
ommended composition. Fertilizer consumption in the agricultural sector
increased fi ve-fold between 1975 and 1990 and increased slightly further
afterwards. However, as a result of the Asian economic crisis in 1998, the
government reduced the subsidies for fertilizers, resulting in increasing
agricultural input costs. Since that time, farmers have been reducing the
use of chemical fertilizers and have started to utilize more organic fertil-
izer and improve the methods for its application [5].
