An Economic Analysis of The Effect of Soil Conservation on Food and Feed Provision in Dryland Agribusinesses on Timor Island, Indonesia

Abstract

The technical and economic bene ts of food and feed crop integration are important facts needed in the devlopment of soil conservation on Timor Island. This study was conducted in South Timor Tengah (TTS) and North Timor Tengah (TTU) Regencies between March and May 2013 and was aimed to discover the amount of cash generated from food crops planted as hedgerows in vegetative conservation efforts compared to no conservation efforts, and the amount of cash generated by corn plants planted between hedgerows in ve years of cultivation. The data were collected through interviews and eld observations. The results of this study demonstrated that: (a) The production of feed biomass planted as hedgerows increase as time progressed and the production would stabilize after the fourth year at 25 tons ha-1year-1, (b) The relationship between biomass production and cultivation time formed a linear line with the equation y = 6,032.63x – 592.6. (c) The relationship between biomass income and cultivation time formed a linear line with the equation Y = 2,021,458.37x – 2,444,254.57, (d) Hedgerows could potentially supply the needs of 2-3 cattle per six months fattening or 4-6 cattle per year, (e) Vegetative conservation reduced the size of land effective for food crops by 10-20% and reduced food crop productivity; however, land productivity increased because the Land Equivalent Ratio (LER) was 6.74 times higher than that of unconserved soil, (f) The reduced corn plant productivity during the 5 years of maintenance formed the exponential line equation y = 4,559.18e-0.34x for soil which underwent vegetative conservation and the linear line equation Y = -634.4x + 3,930 for unconserved soil, (g) The total gross margin of vegetative conservation for ve years cultivation was IDR 29,967,413 ha-1 and without conservation IDR 13,385,079 ha-1, (h) The relationship between the cultivation years and the income from land which had undergone soil conservation during the ve years it was cultivated increased, creating a power regression line equation Y = 4E+06e0.146x, whereas on unconserved soil it decreased, creating the linear regression line equation Y = -1E+06x + 6E+06.