Motivation of Farmers in Running the Business on Private Forest in Cingambul Village, Cingambul Sub-District, Majalengka

Abstract

Demand of wood is increasing in line with the increase of population, but the potential of timber from natural forests decline: consequently, wood supply from forest plantations including private forest needs to be improved. On the other hand, the destruction of forests and land are still high. Government of Indonesia together with the community have implemented the efforts to rehabilitate critical land continuously. In many places, people, as the main actors of forestry development, have succeeded in developing private forests. In the social aspect, the development of private forests has been able to absorb sizeable workforce, both as farmers and as other actors of community forests (workers, cutting services providers, transportation services, marketing services and timber industry). According to the data provided by the Ministry of Forestry (MoF 2013), critical land in Indonesia covers the area of 27.294.842 hectares. The development of private forests seems very important to rehabilitate critical land. Farmers is the main actors in developing private forest. The succes of private forest is determined by their motivation beside the ability of farmers and business opportunities in implementing the private forest business. The research objectives were to: (1) analyze factors related to motivation of farmers in their business of private forest, (2) analyze the role of forests extension workers in the development of private forests, and (3) analyze the type of activities of farmers in the business of private forests. The research was conducted in Cingambul village, Cingambul Sub-District, Majalengka. A survey was conducted from July to August 2013. The analysis unit of research is private forest farmers households. A number of 81 selected as respondents of 101 private forest farmers. Primary data consists of: (1) factors related to the motivation of the farmers in the private forest bussines, namely: demographic characteristics (age, level of formal education, non-formal education, experience of private forest business, number of family dependents and level of the household needs), psychosocial characteristics (the perception of the benefits of private forests, attitudes of forest people toward their private forest business, status and social interaction of farmers), the characteristics of private forest business (land area, availability of plant species, availability of means of production, ease of marketing, and revenue of private forests business), forestry extension intensity (frequency of forest extension workers visit, suitability of the material, accuracy methods applied, and equipment availability in the extension activity), (2) the role of forestry extension workers in the development of private forests, and (3) the farmers activities in their private forest business. Data are collected through interviews, observation and documentation studies. Data are analysed using descriptive statistics (frequency distribution) and inferential statistics (Spearman rank correlation), supported by SPSS 20 software. The research results are: (1) motivation of the farmers positif related: the perception of the benefits of private forests, attitudes of forest people toward their private forest business, availability of plant species, ease of marketing, frequency of forest extension workers visit, suitability of the material, equipment availability, and accuracy methods applied in the extension activity, (2) the dominant roles of forestry extension workers accords to the farmers are as a advisors, facilitators and as a educators. The extension workers role as a facilitator should be expanded again to help the farmers in terms of access to capital that is easy and inexpensive, access the market to get a better price, build networks of cooperation/partnership with a company/industry. Other very important role is as a motivator to encourage the farmers to develop private forest, and the role as an analyzer to assist farmers in determining the choice of the development of private forest business in accordance with the available resources and potential opportunities, and (3) Activity of farmers in the business of private forests covering plant seedlings, land preparation, planting, maintenance, harvesting and marketing timber. Farmers activities are not optimum characterized by low intensity plant maintenance, especially the thinning of timber plants is only done by 33.3 percent of the farmers as well as pest and disease control is done by 12.3 percent of the farmers.