Home garden mixed cropping practice by communities living on peatland in household’s income resilience and climate adaptation

Land use with mixed crop cultivation practices, or agroforestry, is currently important for small farmers because it provides economic resilience and ecosystem-based solutions for climate change adaptation. This research is to examine the role of agroforestry in the homegarden of communities living on peatlands in supporting household economic resilience and the impact of climate change on their livelihoods. In-depth interviews using questionnaires and field observations were carried out for data collection. The research results show that agroforestry based on fruit plants such as Durio kutejensis, Artocarpus champeden, Lansium domesticum, and Parkia speciosa is found in Pulang Pisau Regency, while the mixed crop pattern of Pinang catechu, Coffea liberica, and Cocos nucifera is found in West Tanjung Jabung Regency. This type of land use provides economic stability for farming households on peatlands. Farmer experience and knowledge, species preferences, markets, land ownership, and labor availability are considered in implementing mixed cropping systems. Access to credit and capital and increasing farmers’ abilities during harvest and post-harvest are really needed by farmers. Therefore, support from various stakeholders and pro-farmer policies is needed so that mixed cropping systems can improve the livelihoods of small farmers and reduce their vulnerability to climate change.


Introduction
When the global temperature rises above 1.5 degrees Celsius, various climate hazards and threats to ecosystems and humans are signaled [1].Mitigation and adaptation to climate change are obstacles that many countries must overcome to attain the SDGs [2]; [3].According to BAPPENAS, climate changerelated losses will reach 554 trillion IDR in 2024 [4].Where the agricultural sector is a vulnerable economic sector to the adverse effects of rising global climate [5].Climate change has direct effects on agricultural production and food commodity markets [6], impacting the well-being of small producers [7]; [8].
Farmers with awareness and perception of the phenomenon of climate change are likely to adapt differently than farmers who do not perceive its effects [9]; [10].Understanding of climate change by

Data collection and analysis
This study uses primary and secondary data.Primary data collection was carried out using field observations, household surveys and semi-structured interviews with the help of questionnaires to both male and female respondents to obtain data on respondent characteristics, knowledge and understanding of climate change, livelihoods, cultivation practices carried out, commodities cultivated in land and markets.Secondary data were obtained from the BPS-Statistics Indonesia, reports and publications related to the research conducted.Furthermore, the data were analyzed descriptive quantitatively to see public awareness of climate change, its impacts and the livelihoods of people living around peatlands

Home garden mixed cropping model community
The land use with different varieties of plants (commodities) forming vegetation structures in the same area can be found in almost all regions of Indonesia, with patterns adapted to local biophysical, socioeconomic, and cultural conditions, thereby highlighting the distinctiveness of each location.In the Kalimantan region, for example, there are fruit-based agroforestry gardens called "keleka" [27], damar agroforests yielding resin sap in Krui, Lampung Barat [28], and fruit tree-based agroforestry in South Sumatra [29]; [30].The existence of these forms of agroforestry is a process of farming communities creating resilience through diversification of livelihoods and landscapes [31] The lowland landscapes, such as peatlands, that were once dominated by peat marsh vegetation have been transformed into logged-over and frequently burned areas, reducing the remaining vegetation.The community then uses the occupied land.The community typically selects peat land in downstream areas where the peat is shallow or the location is elevated (mineral soil) for community cultivation.In the 1970s and 1980s, at the research site in Tanjung Jabung Barat, Javanese migrant communities cleared secondary forest land in the form of logged-over areas of timber company forests that had been abandoned and were therefore no man's land.After clearing the land in groups of 10 to 15 people, the land is divided into 2 hectare plots for each individual to use as a residence and cultivation area.Then, on cultivated land, construct secondary and tertiary drainage channels and ditches so that the land can be planted with food crops and does not experience prolonged flooding.According to Bhawana [32], immigrant communities are a significant factor influencing the use of natural resources, land use decisions, and land use transitions in an area and are frequently responsible for changes in land and forest landscapes to agriculture, habitation, and other uses [33].
The farming community uses the land around the house, namely the yard or the location closest to the house for cultivating both annual and seasonal crops.In the two research locations, there were differences in the types of staple crops (commodities) planted by farming communities.Tanjung Jabung Barat Regency where the majority of farmers cultivate areca nut, liberica coffee and coconut, rubber has several locations, oil palm plants are starting to be in great demand as the main commodity.Farmers grow coffee, areca nut, and coconut on the same land.Coconut is the initial crop when they clear land because most of the land is affected by tides.Besides that, in the 1980s there was a coconut program from the Ministry of Agriculture which caused the area to become a coconut central area.After that, the areca nut plants began to be cultivated by the community because they matched the local biophysical conditions and the market was quite good.Although the price and demand for these commodities fluctuate.Liberika coffee plants began to be widely cultivated by the local community under the auspices of areca nut since the 1980s.
In Pulang Pisau Regency, the commodities are rice, rubber, while several fruit crops such as durian (paken, D. kutejensis), cempedak (Artocarpus champeden), langsat (Lansium domesticum) and petai (Parkia speciosa) are also planted, especially on the land near the house.In several locations, the community cultivates sengon (Falcataria moluccana) in monocultures due to a program from the government and is carried out independently because other people are motivated to plant sengon first.Oil palm has begun to develop in recent years, both planted by the public and private companies.
Various commodities are widely cultivated by farmers in the research location, including local plants that have been cultivated for a long time which are still maintained (Table 1).Various considerations made farmers choose these commodities, starting from access to markets and the selling prices of commodities that were high compared to other commodity prices.In addition to relatively easy plant maintenance, lower maintenance costs even without the use of fertilizers starting from the beginning of planting to harvesting plants but still good crop production.Production input is only at the beginning of planting in small quantities, not following best management practices.To clear weeds it is done manually using machetes and herbicides when the yield is high.For farmers with a large land area, production costs will increase if the labor is paid to someone else.
The availability of seeds in sufficient quantities, good conditions and easy to obtain attracts farmers to cultivate commodities.Coffee, areca nut, rubber, paken (durian), petai are types of plants that have a large supply of seeds by looking for old fruit to sow themselves or looking for saplings from regeneration.Even for the liberica coffee and areca nut Betara cultivar plants, Tanjung Jabung Barat District has been known as a producer of good seeds.
In addition, commodity prices that are stable or not too fluctuating are a consideration for farmers.Commercial commodities that depend on the export market, such as rubber, areca nut, and coffee, experience quite significant price changes.The price of rubber latex for nearly ten years is not profitable enough for farmers.With a price of IDR 5000-IDR 6000 per kilogram and declining yields, it is not sufficient to meet household needs, so rubber farmers reduce the frequency of sap tapping.The areca nut commodity is currently still slightly decrease compared to 2-3 years ago when the price of areca nut is still high and there are still quite a number of middlemen and collecting traders so that farmers can choose collectors who charge higher prices.Coconut trees are starting to be abandoned because the price is not profitable enough for farmers.A form of alignment with farmers is needed so that farmers receive a fair price [34].
Tabel 1. Types of selected commodities cultivated on community land.

Agricultural production and livelihood asset
Areca nut, coffee, coconut, rubber and palm oil are the leading commodities in Tanjung Jabung Barat Regency as drivers of the community's economy [23].In 2021, Indonesia controls 60% of the world areca nut market, with a national export value of US$ 357 million and Jambi Province contributing 40% of national exports [35].As for Pulang Pisau Regency, its leading commodities from smallholder plantations are rubber and palm oil in addition to fruit commodities such as durian, cempedak, petai, oranges and mangoes [25].
The livelihoods of communities around peatlands depend on assets, cultivation activities, land use and external conditions, both the market, the environment and policies.Most of the farming communities in the two research locations have more than one source of income.Where the main job is farming and other side jobs as wage laborers, breeders, traders and middlemen.Farming communities grow more than one type of staple commercial crop as a source of household income between weekly income and monthly/annual income.The main commodities of three villages (Parit Bilal Village, Pangabuan District, Mekar Jaya Village and Teluk Kulbi Village, Betara District in Tanjung Jabung Barat Regency) are coffee, areca nut, coconut, rubber and oil palm.The cultivated land is generally in the yards that are around and close to the house.Oil palm plantations are located in a location where the peat is deeper towards the protected forest or Wijaya Karya Sakti (WKS) industrial plantation forest.
The majority of the communities in the research locations of Tanjung Jabung Barat Regency are Javanese who come to the location independently and have lived for more than 30 years.They are generally the second generation, because their parents who moved were invited by relatives or relatives to seek a better life.In addition, there are those with Banjar, Bugis, Batak and Minang ethnic groups, they choose locations in the coastal areas that are in accordance with their culture of origin.They usually own of more than one small piece of land because they cleared the land first for food crop farming and the other land was in the form of yards.Farmers who owned more than 2 percil generally bought from other people who were able to survive with the conditions that existed at that time The Jabiren communities in Pulang Pisau Regency are mostly Dayak Ngaju and a few immigrant.The Jabiren community's land ownership is divided into land for rice farming, land for rubber and mixed cultivation and yard gardens, which are usually planted with long-lived fruit trees such as durian, cempedak, langsat, and others.The prohibition on clearing land with fire and unpredictable weather conditions has resulted in the community's paddy fields not being managed properly and also the many pests and diseases that have arisen causing failure of the rice harvest.Likewise, the production of rubber plantations is currently declining due to erratic leaf fall and the price of rubber which has remained low for the last ten years, so that many rubber farmers have abandoned their rubber plantations or reduced their tapping frequency.The orchards are located in the yard even in a small area can provide income for farmers.According to farmer respondents, even though the yield is not too much, it provides quite a large income, ranging from 15-25 million per year, depending on the number of fruit trees and the area available.
Based on the commodities that are cultivated on private land, there are 2 types of sources of community income, namely monthly yields, those are commodities that can produce yields almost every month because they can be harvested regularly for a month.While annual yields are yields that can be harvested once or twice a year depending on the season (Figure 2).The dependence of farmers on the production of commodities that they cultivate for their livelihood and work makes them very vulnerable to hindrance factors, such as world commodity market prices, pest and disease attacks and extreme weather [36].Areca nut, coffee and rubber commodities are export commodities where demand and prices depend on world economic conditions and the policies of the importing country.The COVID-19 and the Ukraine-Russia war have caused pressure and shocks to the world economy, so that it has affected the supply chain of commodities traded between countries which has an impact on the demand of importing countries for food and other commodities [37]; [38]; [39].

Farmer's adaptation strategy to climate change
In the climate change situation, peatland fires and floods frequently occur in the degraded peatlands.
Based on an analysis of the Regional Agency for Disaster Management (Badan Penanggulangan Bencana Daerah, BPBD) report on the Indonesian disaster risk index in 2022, Pulang Pisau Regency and West Tanjung Jabung Regency have a high risk of drought and flooding and a moderate risk of extreme weather [40].According to farmers, fires not only occur on peatlands that have not been managed but also on peatlands that are used for cultivation and occur during the long dry seasons, such as in 2015 and 2019.These fires cause direct economic losses that farmers must accept.According to farmers, the fire diminished the cultivated plant, so that they had to do replanting.The effect of fire to their health was often ignored by farmers because it did not have a direct impact on the household economy.Flooding incidents on cultivated land still occur, but the events do not occur too long, so they do not cause economic losses for farmers.According to farmers, establishing small ditches on the agricultural lands can help channel the excess water from their lands, so that plants are not flooded for a long time, which can cause death.
Agroforestry practices implemented by farmers do not directly have an impact on reducing fires and flooding in existing peat agricultural cultivation areas.According to farmers, peatland fires have never occurred again in the last few years.This is because the dry season does not last long and there was still rain occasionally.Additionally, according to farmers, the Peat Restoration Agency's (BRG) canal blocking can lessen significant fires like those in 2015 and 2019.Mixed planting practices, or agroforestry, can reduce the impact of climate change by increasing carbon stocks and carbon sequestration carried out on peatlands [41]; [42]; [43]; [44].
The high temperatures and erratic weather as a result of climate change cause crop productivity to decrease so that farmers' profits decline.In the opinion of the respondent farmers, for annual crops such as coffee, coconut, oil palm and areca nut, climate change does not change the harvest time but reduces the amount of harvest.For the liberica coffee plant, the harvest season is in May-June and the season is between December-March.The decrease in the number of harvests varied between 30-45%.This is because during the flowering season, many of them fall due to heavy rain.In addition, climate change causes diseases such as white root disease in coffee plants.
This condition causes farmers, especially small farmers "peasant farmers" to try to find other sources of income, namely by working as hired labor for oil palm harvesting activities, land clearing or land preparation.They divide the workforce into 2 where the men use their energy to work elsewhere if there is a need.Working on one's own arable land is not a priority because the income generated cannot cover household expenses and cannot provide cash in a short time.The same thing was also expressed by Agamile et al. [45] when a crisis occurs, the workforce will be diverted to jobs that generate income outside of owned land.For the land itself, women (the housewives) will work on it, such as harvesting coffee, picking up old areca nuts and processing areca nuts, tapping rubber, and other work that requires a minimum amount of labor.The type of commodity will affect the absorption of male and female labor.Coffee, areca nut, and rubber absorption of labor is almost equal between men and women, in contrast to oil palm and coconut which are dominated by men [46]; [47].Oil palm monoculture requires less labor including women than other cultivations [48].
For the farmer rich farming community, they will switch to non-agricultural businesses, such as chicken farming which are more profitable.Switching to commodities that have a better economy is also an option for rich farmers.They also hand it over to other farmers to be managed with a profit-sharing system.The form of adaptation carried out by farming communities not only diversifies crops but also diversifies their sources of income in order to minimize the impact of climate change on food security and become an important adaptation strategy.Thus, the practicing of agroforestry as both adaptation and mitigation among smallholder farmers is essential to build local resilience, and to promote climate-smart agriculture [49].Matsuura [50] revealed that peasant farmers and farmers will have different ways of adapting to face food security as a result of climate change.Peasant will diversify crops while the farmer will diversify income and crops.Leaving the farm does not guarantee that the farmer will be better off.Farmers may not have the skills needed to move into the formal sector.Maintaining agricultural land tenure should be a concern in agricultural development [51].Farmer climate change adaptation in Figure 3.One form of adaptation of farmers for the livelihood of farmers in Tanjabar is changing the production system, namely selling young areca nuts, buyers who are middlemen will directly harvest and choose areca nut which will meet the requirements to be accepted by the factory.The young betel nut factory requires certain criteria.Usually the third "grompol" from the bottom is bought by young areca nut middlemen.Young areca nut farmers are bought by middlemen at prices ranging from IDR 2000-IDR 2200 per kilogram and then sells to young areca processing factories at a price of IDR 3500-IDR 4000 per kilogram.In Tanjabar there are 2 young areca nut factories, namely PT.Aroma Lestari in Muntialo village and PT.Pinang Muda Lestari in the Mekar Jaya village, Betara sub-district.With this pattern they will reduce the allocation of labor for other jobs that generate cash.They changed the way of processing areca nut by drying the old areca nut (areca nut 'klotok') which was then split and sold.Figures of agroforestry system of coffee, areca nuts and oil palm is shown in Figure 4, and mixed of coffee and areca nut is shown in Figure 5.

Figure 2 .
Figure 2. Commodities as source of income.