From slash-and-burn to replanting: Green revolutions in the Indonesian uplands

The development of upland agriculture has become an increasingly important policy objective in Indonesia over the past decade. Despite the successful Green Revolution in the lowlands, the plight of millions of upland farmers remains a significant challenge. Financial capital ha s improved the technology necessary to help maintain sustainable systems, improve crop yields, decrease loss due to pests and disease, and conserve land in ecologically fragile areas. The formation of biological capital has provided new techniques for improving the sustainability of upland agriculture and the welfare of farmers. Some of the most successful improvements have been the result of innovations by the farmers themselves. Together, these advances help make tropical agriculture in the region sustainable by enabling adaptation to ecological and market changes. This book reports the resu lts of fieldwork conducted by the editors and other experts in some 40 regions of Indonesia from 1989 to 2001. The authors synthesize the work of researchers from a variety of disciplines, backgrounds, and training with their own in-depth research. The result is a wide-ranging and insightful history of the successes and failures of efforts to sustain and improve upland agriculture and access to markets. It considers in a detailed way the importance of trees and perennial crops as the main patrimony of upland farmers and as privileged channels to international and regional markets, despite frequent boom-to-bust price cycles. The authors also look at the role policy can play in facilitating replanting and tree crop diversification, discuss the potential of off-farm diversification and multifunctionality, and consider other ways to enhance entrepreneurship and welfare in the uplands.