Analysis on sustainability of organic farming in rice intensification

Abstract

Indonesia and some other countries in Asia are still striving for food security. This is due to the fact that the world food supply has indicated a critical condition where rice, as the staple food of the majority of Asian population, is one of the critical foods. System of Rice Intensification (SRI) claimed with high productivity and less water requirement might be one of the possible solutions to overcome the world food as well a water crisis. This method has been developed in some Asian countries including Indonesia although some researches still have to be conducted concerning the sustainability of this farming method in increasing rice production. A study was conducted in the District of Sukabumi as a case study with the objective to analyze the potential sustainability of organic rice farming using the SRI method in that area. Study on agricultural sustainability usually concerns with at least three components such as social, economic and environmental aspects. In this study, the three components were stressed on willingness of farmer to adopt new method as social factor, productivity as economic factor and utilization of agricultural wastes for fertilizer as the component that indirectly related to environmental factor. The analyses on the potential agricultural sustainability were conducted based on modeling approach. Several models were developed for uses in the calculation and prediction of the factors considered, which basically were based on Cobb-Douglas production function and Verhulst growth model. The result of this study indicated that the District of Sukabumi had the potential to develop a sustainable organic rice farming using SRI method. However, some factors involving the sustainability still had to be improved for better result of development.