ABSTRACT:
Bench terracing's effect on erosion, soil characteristics, crop yields, and cropping area and socioeconomic factors that affect farmers views and use of bench terraces were evaluated in the Kerinci uplands of Sumatra, Indonesia. Bench terraces reduced soil loss 70% (P<0.05) on enclosed runoff plots in comparison to unterraced fields under the same cropping pattern. Erosion under bench terraces was not significantly different from two grass bund treatments that are less labor- and capital-intensive. Furthermore, bench terraces resulted in a 50% reduction in peanut yields (p<0.01) at the base of terrace risers in comparison to middle bench sites, a 13-31% loss in cropping area, and the exposure of chemcially and physically undesirable subsoils. High-income farmers were two and a half times more likely than middle- or low-income farmers to construct bench terraces. However, neither high farm income nor government subsidies insured long-term terrace maintenance. Terraces are not widely maintained, even among high-income farmers, because they conflict with existing agroforestry-based land use practices that are less labor-demanding. In contrast, agronomic methods of soil conservation, particularly grass bunds, are used widely by low-income farmers without payment of subsidies.
Footnotes
Stephen F. Siebert is coordinator of International Resource Management and adjunct assistant professor, School of Forestry, University of Montana, Missoula, 59812. Jill M. Belsky is a Ph.D. condidate in the Department of Rural Sociology, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. 14853. This research was supported by grants from Sigma Xi, the Andrew Mellon Foundation, and Fulbright-Hays. The authors thank J. Lassoie, J. Power, T. Scott, J. Schweithelm and two anonymous reviewers for valuable comments.
- Copyright 1990 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society
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