5 Company–Community Partnership and Climate Change Adaptation Practices …
87
over selected vigorous rootstocks. The application of bud grafting techniques for
coffee plants is encouraged by the agricultural extension official in the region. Coffee
plants developed through the bud grafting technique are faster to grow and yield better
harvest. At the age of one year since the connection is made, harvest can be obtained.
Selection of budding candidates by farmers is generally very simple, which is based
on the criteria of high fruit production and large seed size (Randriani et al. 2014).
If dry season is prolonged for more than three months consecutively, a traditional
conservation method called rorak (soil and water conservation method) is needed.
Rorak is made with length 75–100 cm, width 30–40 cm, and depth 40–60 cm, with
distance to coffee plants around 60–100 cm apart (Supriadi 2015). The amount of
rorak should be 50% of the total coffee plant per hectare. To improve the structure
and porosity of the soil and increase the ability to bind water, the rorak must be filled
with mulch or leaf litter. In Lampung region, rorak is suitable in the coffee plantation
with the slope level of 8–15%, especially in landscape that is sensitive to erosion
(Mulyoutami et al. 2004).
Methodologies
We administered the survey to 16 randomly selected farmers groups out of 36 listed
groups based on regional census in 2008 in Sumberejo and Pulau Panggung subdistrict in Tanggamus district, which listed 240 coffee farmers as their members in
2012. Of 16 groups, seven groups belong to the company partnership. Data collection
spans three years period, from September 2012 to 2014. The partnership agreement
for all surveyed groups started before our baseline survey. We collected information
on household demographic, various socioeconomic characteristics, and the knowledge and adoption of resource-conserving agricultural practices, namely water and
soil conservation practices, grafting methods, agroforestry, crop diversification, and
income generated from farming activities, as our outcome variables.
Table 5.2 shows the summary statistics of the variables examined in this study.
Farmers in the company partnership hire more labor and own larger farmland; they
are also more connected through transportation means such as car and motorbike. In
terms of network, farmers in the partnership are better connected, and particularly
have intensive interaction with fellow group members. No significant differences
are found in terms of education and age between the farmers who belong to the
partnership versus non-partnership. However, results on the outcome variables show
significant differences between these groups, with farmers who belong to the partnership tend to have higher farm income, adopt conservation and grafting techniques,
practice crop diversification, and forest tree based agroforestry.
87
over selected vigorous rootstocks. The application of bud grafting techniques for
coffee plants is encouraged by the agricultural extension official in the region. Coffee
plants developed through the bud grafting technique are faster to grow and yield better
harvest. At the age of one year since the connection is made, harvest can be obtained.
Selection of budding candidates by farmers is generally very simple, which is based
on the criteria of high fruit production and large seed size (Randriani et al. 2014).
If dry season is prolonged for more than three months consecutively, a traditional
conservation method called rorak (soil and water conservation method) is needed.
Rorak is made with length 75–100 cm, width 30–40 cm, and depth 40–60 cm, with
distance to coffee plants around 60–100 cm apart (Supriadi 2015). The amount of
rorak should be 50% of the total coffee plant per hectare. To improve the structure
and porosity of the soil and increase the ability to bind water, the rorak must be filled
with mulch or leaf litter. In Lampung region, rorak is suitable in the coffee plantation
with the slope level of 8–15%, especially in landscape that is sensitive to erosion
(Mulyoutami et al. 2004).
Methodologies
We administered the survey to 16 randomly selected farmers groups out of 36 listed
groups based on regional census in 2008 in Sumberejo and Pulau Panggung subdistrict in Tanggamus district, which listed 240 coffee farmers as their members in
2012. Of 16 groups, seven groups belong to the company partnership. Data collection
spans three years period, from September 2012 to 2014. The partnership agreement
for all surveyed groups started before our baseline survey. We collected information
on household demographic, various socioeconomic characteristics, and the knowledge and adoption of resource-conserving agricultural practices, namely water and
soil conservation practices, grafting methods, agroforestry, crop diversification, and
income generated from farming activities, as our outcome variables.
Table 5.2 shows the summary statistics of the variables examined in this study.
Farmers in the company partnership hire more labor and own larger farmland; they
are also more connected through transportation means such as car and motorbike. In
terms of network, farmers in the partnership are better connected, and particularly
have intensive interaction with fellow group members. No significant differences
are found in terms of education and age between the farmers who belong to the
partnership versus non-partnership. However, results on the outcome variables show
significant differences between these groups, with farmers who belong to the partnership tend to have higher farm income, adopt conservation and grafting techniques,
practice crop diversification, and forest tree based agroforestry.