IJERD – International Journal of Environmental and Rural Development (2010) 1–1

Research articleerd

Land Conservation of Upland Hills with Severe Erosion- Promoting Field Schools to Increase Farmers’ Awareness
MUHAMMAD AQIL
Faculty of Regional Environment Science, Tokyo University of Agriculture,
Tokyo, Japan
Email: agiltokyo@yahoo.com

MACHITO MIHARA
Faculty of Regional Environment Science, Tokyo University of Agriculture,
Tokyo, Japan
Received 1 December 2010

Accepted 5 March 2010

Abstract Lack of knowledge and understanding of farmers about the risk of erosion havecontributed to the rapid degradation of watersheds in Indonesia. Research was carried out
to identify the topography and extent of land use in the upstream Bengawan Solowatershed to determine interactions between topographic characteristics and land use that
could explain the effect of agricultural expansion in hill areas on erosion occurrence. An
erosion model was applied to calculate the erosion risks using Geographic Information
System (GIS). Slope and land use assessments showed that more than 60% of the soil loss
occurred on upland and mixed crop areas under moderate to steep slopes. Field
investigation indicated that many farmers used to grow maize and cassava in the hilly
areas that are tilled repetitively and mostly left without vegetation cover. Moreover,farmers are not making efforts to use land conservation measures. Thus, these areas need
immediate attention for soil and water conservation activities to prevent further landdegradation. A land conservation map was created to identify land use features as well asrecommended conservation measures which should be applied in order to limit further
watershed degradation. Farmer field schools are proposed to increase farmer awareness on
the negative effects of soil erosion and the benefits of practicing soil and water
conservation.
Keywords upland hills, erosion, GIS, farmer field school

INTRODUCTION
Environmental-related problems, especially erosion, are major issues faced by developing countries
such as Indonesia. Increased illegal logging and inappropriate land conversion to expand theagriculture area have contributed to an increase in the number of critical watersheds in recent
decades. In 1984 the number of critical watersheds in Indonesia was estimated at 22. However,according to the latest survey the number of critical watersheds has increased to 108, or 6-fold,within two decades (Ministry of Forestry, 2009).
High population growth has led to pressure on land resources. Moreover, lack of knowledge
and understanding by local people about the dangers posed by the illegal exploitation of forests andways of ignoring the rules of land conservation have also accelerated land degradation. Thisphenomenon is now faced by Wonogiri Regency which is the case study in this research.
Uncontrolled land conversion in the upland and hilly areas has accelerated the occurrence oflandslides, floods and droughts in downstream areas. In addition, agricultural practice in the uplandand hilly areas has led to a decline in the productivity of upland fields as cropland is more prone toerosion because they are tilled repetitively and mostly left without vegetation cover. Soil erosion
levels in this area are still high and farmers are not making efforts to construct or maintain soil andconservation works. The Regional Development Agency of Wonogiri Regency has reported a© ISERD

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IJERD – International Journal of Environmental and Rural Development (2010) 1–1

strong relationship between forest conversion and erosion, explaining the need to detect and assessland conversion systems as a first step in erosion evaluation.
In the present work, an attempt is made to assess the topography and extend of land use over
the watershed in order to find the relationship between topographic characteristics and land use that
could explain the effect of land conversion on erosion occurrence. Furthermore, farmer field
schools are proposed to increase farmer awareness of the negative effects of soil erosion and thebenefits of soil and water conservation.
MATERIALS AND METHOD
Because of the high erosion levels, a research area was selected in the Wonogiri Regency ofIndonesia. Wonogiri is located between latitudes 7º 32' S and 8 15' S and longitudes 110º 42' E and111º 18' E. A map of the study area is shown in Fig. 1. This area has a monsoon climate with anaverage annual precipitation of 2773 mm. Topography of the area includes elevations from 115 to1300 m. Major soil types are Latosol, Meditreran, and Andosol (Soewarno and Hardjosuwarno,2008). Dry land farming, paddy field and forest dominate the land use system in the river basin,
which account for more than 70% of the area. Widespread soil conservation measures have been
implemented in the area but these are in a poor state due to a lack of maintenance by farmers whoare expecting local government assistance.

Fig. 1 Map of the study site under consideration

A survey was undertaken from January to May 2009. Various types and sources of data werecollected including satellite image soil attribute data from the National Soil Survey Office, land useand climate data. This information was used to identify the source of erosion as well as to develop
conservation strategies. Interviews were also conducted with local farmer about their perceptions ofsoil erosion and the constraints of the present existing soil and water conservation measures.
Data processing was implemented using the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE)
in a GIS raster system. RUSLE computes the average annual erosion expected on hillslopes bymultiplying several factors together as: A = R.K.L.S.C.P, where A is the computed annual soil loss(t/ha/yr); R is the rainfall erosivity factor (MJ mm/ha h); K is a soil erodability factor (t/ha/MJmm); L is a slope length factor; S is a slope steepness factor; C is a cover management factor; andP is a supporting practices factor. The values of these factors are determined from field andlaboratory experiments (Renard et al., 1997; Lal, 2001).
After obtaining information on the relative magnitude and spatial distribution of soil erosion
and potential soil erosion sites, we expand the analysis to create a land conservation map to protect
the watershed from degradation.
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RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
Farming practice on slope areas and its effect on soil erosion
Soil erosion in this study area has become one of the important factors affecting land degradationand sedimentation deposition on the river. The results indicated that some regions of the watershedhave been identified as high erosion potential zones. To distinguish the level of erosion based on
the slope steepness the area was classified into four classes, namely 1. gentle slope (0-25%), 2.
moderate slope (25-35%), 3. steep slope (35-50%), and 4. very steep slope (>50%). Through slope
assessment in the GIS environment, the estimated distribution of erosion by soil class is shown in
Table 1.
Table 1 Soil loss and coverage area under different slope class
Slope class
GentleModerate
Steep
Very steep

Soil loss( ton/ha/yr)
53.75
185.36207.73
70.51

Percent (%)
9.17
43.38
35.43
12.03

Coveragearea (ha)133410
45393
3565
1676

Percent (%)
72.49
24.66
1.94
0.91

Most of the Wonogiri watershed has erosion values of 53.75-207.73 ton/ha/yr, with mostvalues in the range 185.36-254.31 ton/ha/yr, having a climatologically moderate to high erosion
potential. In addition, more than 60% of the total amount of erosion occurred on the moderate andsteep slopes. Most of the erosion occurred from November to March as this area is tropical wheremonsoon winds bring heavy rainfall during that period. During these months rainfall intensity
reaches 150-200 mm/day, which can cause considerable soil erosion.
As land use practice has a strong relationship with the erosion occurrence the five land uses,i.e. mixed agriculture, settlement, upland crop, paddy field, and forest, were investigated todetermine the effect of land use on soil erosion, as shown in Table 2. The computed soil erosion
decreased in the following order: upland crop, mixed agriculture, settlement, forest and paddy field.
The average computed amount of soil erosion under upland crop and mixed agriculture contribute
more than 90% of the total soil loss.
Table 2 Soil loss and coverage area under different land use
Land useUpland crop
Settlement
Mixed agriculture
Paddy field
ForestSoil loss(ton/ha/yr)
223.12
6.45
143.962.96
3.00

Percent (%)
52.26
1.71
38.24
0.79
0.80

Coveragearea (ha)
20854
28990
67115
30318
25041

Percent (%)
12.12
16.85
39.02
17.44
14.55

The major reason for high erosion in the area of upland and mixed agriculture was the rapid
expansion of agricultural activities in hill areas (Veldkamp and Verburg, 2004). Most of the crops(upland and annual) were cultivated in hill areas which are more prone to erosion. Rapid population
growth and reduced land availability in the flat areas have forced cultivation of crops (includingmaize, cassava and beans) in areas of moderate to steep slopes. In addition, high profits due toincreased upland crop market prices have attracted more farmers to cultivate land more intensively,
shorten the fallow periods and till the land repetitively. This results in land left without vegetation
cover that accelerates soil erosion.
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Proposed land conservation area map
One of the challenges for the farmers living in the watershed is how to best manage their land
without adverse effects on the environment. To help farmers limit or reduce further landdegradation and its depleting effect on productivity, a proposed land conservation map has beencreated through overlaying erosion risk on land use maps. Risk assessment using GIS wasconducted to classify five conservation areas, namely A, B, C, D and E as shown in Fig. 2 andTable 3.

O

Proposed conservation
ABCD105010 KilometersEFig. 2 Recommended land conservation for the study area
Table 3 Proposed land conservation map for the study area
Land
type

Existing land features

Area(ha)A
B

Very low erosion level
Settlement areas with
low to moderate erosion
level

22891
6412

C

Agricultural areas with
low to moderate erosion
level106783

D

Agricultural areas withhigh to severe erosion
level

31085

E

Agriculture on
mountainous areas andforest

16969

Recommended land use/land conservation
No specific conservation efforts required•A grassed waterway to reduce erosion and catchnutrients•Carry out settling ponds construction in the drainage
area•
Individual terrace construction•
Cover crop-any annual plant grown as monoculture•
Crop rotation or Crop sequencing- growing dissimilartypes of crops in sequential seasons•
Ridge terrace construction•
Strip farming-alternate strips of closely sown crops
with strips of row crops•
Contour farming- practice across a slope following its
elevation contour lines•
Drop structure construction•
Community based soil erosion management program
should be introduced•
Change upland agriculture into agroforestry•
Reforestation of the very steep area (slope>50%)•Engineering construction such as check dam andgully control•Community based soil erosion management program
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In Table 3 each different type of conservation contributes to a specific type of treatment.
However, attention should be paid to land types D and E as these areas are the most critical, andshould be treated immediately in order to maintain the sustainability of hydrological function.
Farmers growing upland crops (mainly maize) in these areas are advised to practice strip or contour
farming across a slope, as this system helps to stop erosion by creating natural dams for water andpreserving the strength of the soil. In addition, drop structure construction helps to stabilize steep
waterways and reduce gully erosion.
In addition, areas of land type E should be restricted from any upland farming activities suchas maize or cassava. Instead, local farmers may be advised to pursue a practice encouraging
environmental sustainability such as agroforestry in the border forest areas which buffer the more
intensively deforestation. Furthermore, very steep areas (slope >50%) should be reforested torecover destroyed forests.
Enhancing farmer awareness through farmers field schools
The best way to permanently conserve eroded land is to work closely with an established education
program in farming communities. Farmers field schools (FFSs) on soil and water conservation areproposed to help farmers obtain a deeper understanding of environment problems and their causes.
This program brings together concept and methods from agro-ecology, experimental education andcommunity development (FAO, 2002; Ministry of Agriculture, 2008).
The FFS is a group-based learning process with activities involving simple experiments,
regular field observation and group analysis. The knowledge gained from these activities enables
farmers to make their own locally-specific decisions about environmentally friendly cropmanagement practices. The curriculum of FFS involves a wide range of environmentally friendly
crop management such as tillage practices (direction and conservation tillage), crop rotations, useof organic fertilizer to manage soil fertility, use of crop residues, and soil and water conservation
structures (terraces, drop structure). This curriculum is built on the assumption that farmers canonly implement conservation measures once they have acquired the ability to carry out their own
analysis. Organizing FFS requires a facilitator for the activities associated with farming practices.
A flow diagram of FFS implementation is shown in Fig. 3.

Extension
officeExtension
staff

Farmergroup

Field school
Fieldlaboratory
Comparing conservation
with non conservation
plots (Area 1 ha)

Practice of conservation
agriculture (Area 10 ha)

Fig. 3 Flow diagram of FFS on soil and water conservation

Fig. 3 details the role of a facilitator in the various FFS activities. In general, the facilitator
introduces an activity, clarifies the process, sets participants to work, asks questions as groups
make their presentations, and summarizes presentations underlining the important points that werelearned during the exercise. The field facilitator (extension or researcher) organizes all activities
from beginning to the end of the crop season. Participants of FSS are farmers living within the area
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around 10 ha. Farmers are divided into several small groups of 15 to 20 to maximize participation.
Of the 10 ha of FFS land, 9 ha will be managed by farmer groups and the remaining 1 ha is used asa field laboratory with field guides managed by the extension/researcher.
Working with 15 to 20 member teams, farmers enter and make observation/experiment in thefield laboratory plot (±1 ha). Once a week, participating farmers will come to the field laboratory
to make observations and analyze the problems occurred. They are expected to compare these
problems with the existing realities in the field. If there are differences in appearance between theconditions in a field laboratory with the field school, farmers are expected to have been able toexplain. At harvest, the participants compare the crop yield or other conservation measures (e.g.
erosion rate, soil quality) of the study samples (field laboratory) with the larger field (field school)
in which the supporting study is conducted. Thus, the experience and lessons gained from the field
laboratory can be a reference for farmers and motivate them to continue applied conservation
measures in their own fields.
CONCLUSION
Agricultural practices in upland and hilly areas have resulted in seriously declining land
productivity as cropland is more susceptible to soil erosion. The erosion model was applied toassess the effect of farming practice in slope areas on the occurrence of erosion. Through slope andland use assessments we found that more than 60% of the soil loss occurred on upland crops andmixed agriculture under moderate to steep slopes. Field investigation indicated that many farmers
grow maize and cassava in the hilly areas that are tilled repetitively and mostly left without
vegetation cover. Moreover, farmers are not making efforts to maintain land conservation measures.
Thus, these areas need immediate attention for soil and water conservation activities to prevent
further land degradation. One of the challenges for the farmers living in the watershed is how tobest manage their land without any adverse effect on the environment. A land conservation map
was created to localize land use features and recommended conservation measures which should beapplied in order to limit further watershed degradation, as well as depleting agriculturalproductivity. Farmers field schools are proposed to increase farmer awareness of the negative
effects of soil erosion and the benefits of practicing soil and water conservation.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors extend grateful thanks to the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) in
providing the postdoctoral research fellowship enabling research in Japan.

REFERENCES
FAO (2002) Ten years of IPM training in Asia-From farmer field school to community IPM. Food andAgriculture Organization of the United Nations, Italy.
Lal, R. (2001) Soil degradation by erosion. Land Degradation and Development, 12, 1-8.
Ministry of Agriculture (2008) Field school of integrated crop management on maize. Ministry ofAgriculture, Indonesia.
Ministry of Forestry (2008) Annual report on watershed condition in Indonesia. Ministry of Agriculture,Indonesia.
Renard, K.G., Foster, G.R., Weesies, G.A., McCool, D.K. and Yoder, D.C. (1997) Predicting soil erosion bywater - a guide to conservation planning with the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE).
USDA-ARS Handbook No. 703. United States Government Printing Office, USA.
Soewarno and Hardjosuwarno, S. (2008) Sedimentation control: Part 1. Intensive measures outside ofWonogiri Reservoir, Central Java. Journal of Applied Sciences in Environmental Sanitation, 1, 9-17.
Veldkamp, A. and Verburg, P.H. (2004) Modelling land use change and environmental impact. Journal ofEnvironmental Management, 72, 1-3.

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