PEKARANGAN: TRADITIONAL AGROFORESTRY IN CENTRAL JAVA

Pekarangan is a piece of land of open space area, which is located surrounding house building. Pekarangan is an optimal and sustainable land use as a type of agroforestry system in the tropical region of Indonesia including in Central Java. Pekarangan shows traditional agroforestry system practice.
Most people in the villages of Central Java practiced traditional agroforestry system in the form of pekarangan. Many agroforestry experts mentioned that pekarangan provide food, medicinal plants, firewood and wood for construction. Other functions of pekarangan are creating a microclimate and as windshield for houses.
Indigenous agroforestry in Central Java often imitate the floristic diversity of natural forest ecosystems, though the actual species composition may be different. Javanese farmers have developed highly complex pekarangan, with hundreds of productive plant species found in a single village. Pekarangan in the villages of Central Java consist of fruit trees such as Durian (Durio zibethinus), Duku (Lansium domesticum ), Mangostine (Garcinia mangostana), Petai (Parkia speciosa), Jengkol (Pithecellobium jiringa) ; Palm trees such as Coconut (Cocos nucifera ) and combined with agriculture crops such as banana, cassava, corn (local variety) and chili. In some regions in Central Java pekarangan was dominated by woody trees such as Sengon (Paraserianthes falcataria), Bambu (Gigantochloa apus ); fruit trees such as rambutan ( Nephelium lapaceum), Kedondong ( Sapondias dulcis ), Nangka ( Artocarpus heterophylus ), Jengkol (Ptecelobium lobatum) and other plants for daily culinary use or for selling.
Activities to manage the traditional agroforestry was only part of farming activities. Management of pekarangan with apropriate silvicultural techniques has not been conducted by small farmers (peasants). There was no attemp to develop pekarangan into more profitable farms. According to the farmers, their reasons to practice a traditional agroforestry were because it has low management risk and high social benefit. The dominant plant species in the pekarangan were fruit trees, because they were fast growing, easy to maintain, resistant to pest and disease, suitable for their soil type, good price and easy to market.
When a price of one product drops, they still have other products to sell. It provides them with subsistence products that can be harvested more immediately to meet daily needs. Chili could be harvested every 15 days, while grass, legumes and corn tops sustain cattle and goats. The Pekarangan land have high potential to improve the life welfare of the poor landless and marginal farmers, primarily when that pekarangan was maintaining by agroforestry system.
The women in farmers family have roles to provide their family daily needs by maintaining their pekarangan because they were mostly involved in all activities in the pekarangan. So improve their knowledge, skill and attitude to raise their pekarangan products is very important.