Overcoming Degradation and Increasing the Value of Peatland Benefits Through the Cultivation of Pineapple in Riau Province, Indonesia

Wetlands can be defined as land where the soil is waterlogged due to the condition of the soil being saturated with water either permanently or seasonally. These puddles can usually be flowing or still water [1]. According to Elsworth [2] wetland is the collective name for all areas outside the oceans that are permanently or periodically covered with water.

Peatlands are wetlands with a watery soil layer composed of dead and decaying plant matter. The total area of peatlands accounts for half of the area of wetlands in the world. All peatlands can be found in different parts of the world. As quoted from the Wetlands International article [3], the functions of peatlands are, among others: water storage, peatlands can absorb rainwater, prevent flooding, release water slowly, and guarantee a supply of clean water throughout the year. As a source of food, millions of people depend on peatlands as areas for herding cattle, fishing and carrying out agricultural activities. Breeding of Species, tropical peat swamp forests are home to thousands of animals and plants, including rare and endangered species such as the orangutan and Sumatran tiger. Climate change, peatlands contain twice as much carbon as existing forests worldwide. When disturbed or drained, peatlands can be a major source of greenhouse gas emissions.

Based on the above definition, in conditions in the field, land that is permanently or periodically covered with water can be in the form of peatlands, swamps, and ecosystems around watersheds. Wetlands have a main function as a water catchment area, besides that many have also been used for fisheries and agriculture. According to Monteverde et al. [4] the use of wetlands, including peatlands, for agriculture faces a dilemma, on the one hand peatlands are needed to meet food needs and security, bioenergy development, and economic growth, especially the development of export commodities. On the other hand, Indonesia is committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in accordance with Presidential Regulation of the Republic of Indonesia Number 61 of 2011, among others, not to clear forests and peatlands. Meanwhile, the availability of potential land from mineral land is increasingly limited due to high competition and competition for land use and conflicts of interest for various sectors. According to Masganti et al. [5] of 14.9 million hectares of peatland, around 3.74 million hectares is degraded land, both in forest areas and in agricultural cultivation areas.

Meanwhile, based on global wetland data in 2019, Indonesia has a peatland ecosystem with an area of 22.5 million ha. Riau Province has a peatland area of 2.2 million ha after Papua Province (6.3 million ha), and Central Kalimantan Province (2.7 million ha). This is followed by West Kalimantan (1.8 million ha), South Sumatra (1.7 million ha), West Papua (1.3 million ha), East Kalimantan (0.9 million ha), and North Kalimantan, North Sumatra and South Kalimantan possess 0.6 million ha each [6]. The 10 provinces with the largest peatlands in Indonesia can be seen in the following Figure 1.

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Figure 1. The 10 provinces with the largest peatlands in Indonesia (million ha)

Apart from being unproductive, degraded peatlands are also a source of greenhouse gas emissions and if left unchecked, degradation may continue or return to forest, but this will take a very long time. For this reason, it is necessary to formulate directions and policies that refer to several perspectives [7-11]. The Indonesia government through the Ministry of Environment and Forestry by issuing Government Regulation Number 71 of 2014 with the aim of controlling damage to peat ecosystems is carried out based on the national, provincial and district/city peat ecosystem protection and management plans as referred to in Article 16 paragraph (2) controlling peat ecosystem damage consists of: a. prevention of peat ecosystem damage; b. prevention of peat ecosystem damage; and c. restoration of damaged peat ecosystems with several criteria: (i) the main basis for peatland utilization is saving natural resources and the environment, as well as to support food security, environment-based community self-reliance, (ii) the main priority for management is carried out by and for the community/farmers in the context of agrarian reform to support increasing the welfare of farmers, and must be managed based on the principles of environmentally friendly and sustainable agriculture and/or a system of intensification of sustainable agriculture with minimum ecological risk, (iii) common perception of all policy makers and stakeholders, and (iv) taking into account conditions utilization of existing peat (policies, functions, spatial and territorial plans, land cover, permits, moratorium, fires and damage), problems and strategic issues that arise, and the need for sustainable management of peat, it is necessary to formulate directions, policies and strategies for peat ecosystem utilization in the future.

As stated by the researchers above, apart from being unproductive, degraded peatlands are also a source of greenhouse gas emissions and if left unchecked, degradation may continue or return to forest, but it will take a very long time. Along with the decreasing and limited fertile mineral land because it is used for the development of various sectors, and the increasingly limited land for agriculture, causing people to use wetlands for agricultural and other businesses.

Soil types in Riau Province are dominated by organosol soil types. Organosol soil is organic soil originating from peat and swamps, its distribution reaches 50% of the area of Riau, especially in the lowlands and coastal areas [12]. In Riau Province, wetlands have long been used for the cultivation of various types of plants, both food, horticultural and plantation crops. Even though it is stated that wetlands, including peatlands, are included in marginal lands or sub-optimal lands, the cultivation of these various plants is still profitable and is the main source of livelihood for the community. The group of food crops that are widely cultivated by the people of Riau Province in wetlands include rice and corn. Horticultural plant groups include various types of pineapple plants, other fruits and vegetables, pineapples and other fruits. Furthermore, plantation crops that are widely cultivated include oil palm, rubber, coffee, sago and areca nut. In order to realize food security in Riau Province on the one hand, inhibit and overcome the problem of degradation of wetlands on the other hand, it is necessary to formulate an optimal and efficient strategy for the development of potential agricultural commodities in wetland areas, especially in peatlands.

One of the potential agricultural commodities and has been widely developed in the peatlands of Riau Province is pineapple. The results of CIFOR's research [13] show that pineapple is a productive, profitable and peat-friendly commodity. Pineapple cultivation on peatlands is best done with agroforestry patterns and best practices in land preparation, seeding, planting, and strengthening various types of capital, such as social capital, human capital, and financial capital.

This study aims to determine the technical cultivation of potential agricultural commodities that are applied and compare them with good agricultural practices. Besides conducting a gap analysis between the application of cultivation techniques carried out by farmers with reference to good agricultural practices, an analysis of pineapple farming income was also carried out. The results of the pineapple farming income analysis were then compared with the analysis of smallholder oil palm farming on peatlands.

Based on the results of the analysis presented in the table above, it can be stated that most farmers in Riau Province had implemented good agricultural practices for pineapple cultivation from the aspects of seed selection, land preparation, planting, and harvesting. The application of good agricultural practices is still weak from the aspect of plant maintenance, including fertilization, weeding, thinning and watering. In general, pineapple farmers do not do weeding, thinning and fertilizing. Although most of the farmers do fertilization, the dosage is still far below the recommendation. The low knowledge of good pineapple cultivation techniques and limited capital on the one hand, the high price of fertilizer on the other hand, causes pineapple plant maintenance to have not been carried out optimally.

3.2 Income earnings

Farm income analysis is carried out using an economic approach, not an accounting approach. This implies that all activities and costs incurred in pineapple farming are calculated as costs including the cost of one's own input, namely the cost of labor in the family and the cost of depreciation of the agricultural tools and machinery used.

Income is the difference between revenue and total costs incurred in conducting pineapple farming starting from land preparation to harvesting. Revenue is the product of production and the price of pineapples. The total cost of production is the sum of the costs of production inputs, costs of farming activities, depreciation costs and other costs. Revenue and total production costs (including components) are calculated per production process, where one production process lasts for 18 months. From the calculation of income per hectare per production process, then income per hectare per month is calculated. The results of the analysis of pineapple farming income per hectare in Riau Province are presented in the following table (Table 2).

Table 2. Analysis of pineapple farming income per hectare in Riau Province

Source: Results of survey data analysis

Note: the length of time per production process of pineapple farming is 18 months, and one working day is 8 hours.

From the table, it can be seen that the amount of pineapple production produced by farmers in Riau Province is an average of 24,294.00 fruit per ha, or equivalent to 17,125.10 kg/ha. The price of pineapple in Riau Province varies between IDR 4,200/kg - IDR 7,500/kg, with a mode value of IDR 5,000/kg. By using the price based on the mode value, the pineapple farming revenue in Riau Province is IDR 85,625,476.19 per ha per production process.

The total production cost of pineapple farming is IDR 46,822,477.02 per ha per production process. These costs consist of costs of production facilities, costs of farming activities, depreciation costs and other costs, respectively per ha per production process of IDR 10,398,987.78, IDR 27,206,900.87, IDR 798,678.89, and IDR 398,431.64.

By subtracting the revenue from the total production cost, the pineapple farming income per ha per production process is IDR 46,822,477.02. If converted per month, the income from pineapple farming per ha per month is IDR 2,601,248.72.

From various previous research results, information is obtained that the income of oil palm farming on peatlands per hectare per month is less than IDR 2,500,000 [19-25]. Thus, it can be stated that pineapple farming is more economically promising for the community compared to smallholder oil palm farming on peatlands.

As additional information, the results of our research show that if pineapple is processed into various processed pineapple products by household businesses, such as pineapple chips, pineapple dodol, pineapple diamonds and pineapple jam, it can generate an additional income of IDR 3,029,354 per month. Meanwhile, independent oil palm smallholders in Riau Province fully sell palm oil products in the form of fresh fruit bunches. In other words, if there is excess production of pineapple, it can be used to be processed into various processed products that are more economically valuable and durable. Meanwhile, it is recommended that fresh fruit bunches of oil palm be processed into crude palm oil (CPO) and kernels not exceeding the 48 hours limit, in fact it is hoped that it will take less than 6 hours.

3.3 Strategies to overcome degradation and increase the benefit value of peatlands through the development of pineapple cultivation

From the results of the analysis, it can be stated that the profits obtained from pineapple farming carried out by farmers are quite large. On average, the profitability of pineapple farming in Riau Province exceeds that of oil palm farming on peatlands. However, pineapple farming carried out by small farmers in Riau Province is still faced with the problem of not fully implementing the principles of good agricultural practices so that the farming carried out by most farmers is inefficient so that the resulting production is not optimal and the profits are not maximized.

Some of the problems and constraints from the aspect of implementing good agricultural practices as discussed in the previous section are:

(1) The planting system, spacing of pineapples between rows, within rows and between lanes is still not in accordance with recommendations. This causes the distance between plants and between lines that are too close or too far. Spacing that is too close causes the amount of pineapple production produced is still below standard. Planting spacing that is too close causes competition for nutrients and sunlight so that the production of pineapples is large but small. On the other hand, spacing that is too far causes the amount of production to be small even though the size of the pineapples produced is large.

(2) The length, width, and depth of the planting holes used by farmers also vary, many of which are not up to standard. This also affects the development of pineapple plants, so that the resulting pineapple production is still below standard.

(3) Fertilizers used by farmers also vary and have not yet applied the six principles of farming: right time, right dose, right place, right type, right amount, and right price. Fertilization time that is too fast and too late will affect plant growth. Too little or too much fertilizer inhibits plant growth. Not all types of fertilizer that are recommended are used by farmers, for example pineapple farmers in Kampar generally do not use CuSo4 (terusi). The availability of different amounts, types and prices of fertilizers in each district also affects the fulfillment of fertilization compared to good pineapple cultivation standards. The absence of recommendations for locality-specific cultivation techniques also causes various applications of fertilization by farmers.

(4) None of the farmers in the three districts that were the focus of research in Riau Province did watering, even though for good pineapple growth, sufficient water was needed. Watering should be done especially in the dry season.

(5) Marketing of pineapples is generally done by selling pineapples to traders who come to buy pineapples directly to farmers. Pineapple prices are set by traders. Most of the pineapples are bought by traders from Pekanbaru City. It can be informed that the price of pineapple at the time of the survey was IDR 7,500/kg in Kampar Regency, IDR 5,000/kg-IDR 6,000/kg in Siak Regency, and IDR 4,000-IDR 4,500/kg in Bengkalis Regency. Traders sell pineapples in Pekanbaru City at a price of IDR 10,000/kg - IDR 12,000/kg.

Observing these various problems, in order to produce optimal production and maximum profit, several strategies need to be implemented, namely:

(1) Develop research and development (R&D) of locality-specific pineapple cultivation technology on peatlands, according to the characteristics and thickness of the peatlands.

(2) Conducting counseling through training and assistance in the application of good agricultural practices to farmers in intensive and continuous pineapple farming.

(3) Providing subsidized fertilizer assistance to pineapple farmers.

(4) Provide assistance and support for the expansion of the pineapple market between islands and between provinces.

(5) Develop and strengthen pineapple farmer groups and cooperatives.

Farm income analysis is carried out using an economic approach, not an accounting approach. This implies that all activities and costs incurred in pineapple farming are calculated as costs including the cost of one's own input, namely the cost of labor in the family and the cost of depreciation of the agricultural tools and machinery used.

The Government of the Republic of Indonesia has a strong commitment to preventing environmental damage, especially on peatlands. Through the Peat Restoration Agency of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry of the Republic of Indonesia, systematically and continuously strives to prevent forest and land fires as well as manage and control peat ecosystems. Peat ecosystem management is carried out, among other things, by developing various types of potential commodities from economic and environmental aspects [26-28].

In the context of managing and controlling peat ecosystems, it is necessary to involve various stakeholders, both government and non-government, namely involving local and international communities, companies, universities and non-governmental organizations. This needs to be done so that planning, organizing, implementing, and supervising can be carried out properly and fairly [29-35].