Assessment of Food Crop Production Associated with Transmigration Schemes in Southeast Sulawesi-Indonesia

Abstract

Southeast Sulawesi Province is one of the 21 transmigration destination areas that has been the object of transmigration settlement since 1968/1969. A total of 54, 724 families or almost 210, 588 people had been moved between 1968 and 1997 to 157 settlement units in the area. Transmigrants are estimated to account for 12.60 % of the population of Southeast Sulawesi. The main purpose of this study is to assess the availability of food crop production in accordance with increasing population in Southeast Sulawesi during the period from 1968 to 1997. The objectives include, among others, an attempt at a more detailed analysis of how much of this production growth was due to either intensification or extensification. In Southeast Sulawesi, extensification is directly associated with the transmigration program. An examination of the 1968-1997 trends in the production of major food crops in Southeast Sulawesi revealed that the major contribution of the transmigration program to the production of food crop has been linked to agricultural policy, which witnessed increases in the production of upland paddy (153.60 %), soybean (93.36 %) and wetland paddy (45.53 %), respectively.