Intensification of Agroforestry Systems in Community Forests to Increase Land Productivity and Sustainable Food Sovereignty

Abstract

A food crisis can arise due to the population growth being faster than the growth in food production. This is because food requirement is increasing significantly, while natural resources to support human life are increasingly becoming scarce. This chapter aims to determine a protocol for increasing the productivity of food plants in agroforestry community forests to contribute to sustainable food security and sovereignty in Indonesia. Small farmers in Indonesian villages generally cultivate their limited land (yards, moor, and community forests) traditionally and intensively to produce food, including corn, peanuts, soybeans, coffee, fruits, and tubers, in agroforestry systems. The productivity of food crops in private forests on a smallholder agroforestry scale is still relatively low, but it can be sustainable. Small-scale agroforestry supports the fulfillment of the basic food needs of the farming community sub-system, even though it is a micro-scale business. Private monoculture forests have recently developed agroforestry systems to produce timber, food crops, energy, and medicines. The expansion of land under food crops and environmental engineering technology on infertile land has a high potential to increase food productivity. The applied agroforestry silviculture starts from selecting shade-tolerant crops, intensifying tree treatment to provide space for crops and fertilizer inputs.