East Kalimantan Environmentally Sustainable Development Strategy

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AGRICULTURE SECTOR
Agriculture remains an important part of East Kalimantan’s development and is one
of the most important opportunities to improve rural livelihoods. Although agriculture,
excluding palm oil, represents only 4 percent of East Kalimantan’s overall GDP, in some rural
districts it accounts for 20 percent of GDP. Its impact on rural communities is even broader as
it accounts for almost 20 percent of total employment. By bringing jobs and incomes to rural
households, which are typically poorer than the average household in East Kalimantan, agriculture
is one of the most effective anti-poverty economic development strategies; by some estimates,
a 1 percent increase in agricultural GDP can translate into 6 percent more spending for rural
households. Yet, current agricultural practices also led to significant emissions from land use,
and there are substantial opportunities to reduce the sector’s carbon footprint. In this section, the
agricultural sector includes both production of food crops and estate crops but excludes palm oil,
which is addressed in a separate section given its disproportionate size and growth.
Current Context
East Kalimantan’s agricultural sector is divided into food crops, dominated by rice
production, and estate crops. Over 178,000 ha of agricultural lands are planted with food
crops, often for subsistence farming. Rice is by far the largest food crop, accounting for almost 90
percent of production by hectare. Estate crops, excluding palm oil, are roughly equal in area to food
crops with 181,000 ha planted. Rubber, followed by cocoa and coconuts, are the largest crops
accounting for 80 percent of planted areas. Compared to Java and Sumatra, agriculture is small
in East Kalimantan, taking up just 2 percent of land and 4 percent of GDP, but is still important for
rural communities.
Agricultural practices differ substantially by type of farming in East Kalimantan. There
are four main types of farming in East Kalimantan, upland food crop production, lowland food crop
production, perennial estate crop production, and swidden or shifting cultivation. These are not
mutually exclusive as individual farmers engage in multiple types of farming. Lowland farming is
dominated by irrigated paddy rice fields and common among Javanese migrants. Upland farming
is conducted in rainfed, hilly areas; again rice is the most common crop, but its yield is almost half
that of lowland rice. Perennial estate crop farming practices differ by the type of crop. For example,
the pepper plantations common among Buginese migrants are typically developed for three to
five years, after which the soil is depleted and must be restored or abandoned for new farmland.
Rubber plantations, by contrast, take 10 to 15 years to reach peak productivity. Swidden or shifting
cultivation involves the clearing of agricultural or forest land, typically by fire, cultivating the land for
a short period until fertility or weeds decrease productivity, then shifting to a new area, eventually
rotating back through fields as they have been restored. While conventional wisdom holds that
shifting cultivation is a major force of deforestation and is inherently unsustainable, its impact
depends on the length of the rotation. The swidden agricultural practices by Dayak tribes are
considered more sustainable given their long rotation periods compared to swidden practices on
lowland, smallholder estate crops, which have shorter periods.
DRAFT
Agriculture accounted for substantial emissions of 52 MtCO2e in 2005, primarily from
its expansion into forests and peatlands. Agricultural processes, such as the fuel used
to run farm equipment and transport crops, and methane release from flooded rice paddies,
account for only 3.2 MtCO2e currently. The other 94 percent of emissions are due to the opening
up of forest land for new agriculture (9.4 MtCO2e), use of fires to clear land and their spread and
subsequent destruction of abandoned lands (31 MtCO2e), and peat decomposition from active
and abandoned peatlands which have been opened and drained for agriculture (8 MtCO2e).
These emissions are greatest in the districts of Nunukan, Kutai Kertanegara, and Kutai Barat,
respectively.