Agroforestry of The Plantation Crops and its Ecosystem Characteristics

Abstract

While oil palm expansion in South East Asia continues, the consequences of this rapid expansion for hydrological functioning and other ecosystem services remain uncertain. In-depth knowledge on this issue is scarce as there have been only few studies addressing hydrological impacts of oil palm plantations. Wecompared theecosystemcharacteristicsof the monoculture plantation, rubber agroforestry and secondary forest. We found that ecosystem characteristics of the plantationcrop agroforestry are similar to that of secondary forest showing among other favorable lowsurface runoff. Other study in our study area, investigating the implementation of the agroforestry in monoculture oil palm showed promising result that agroforestry in oil palm can improved biodiversity and other environmental parameters of the monoculture plantation. The results of this experiment are encouraging for further research aiming to identify more diversified management strategies for plantation crops for sustainable agriculture practice that reconcile green growth strategy.