A Preliminary Survey on Coconut-Sugar-Making Homegardens in Relation to Fuel Procurement in Banyumas, Central Java

Abstract

This paper describes the present situation of coconut-sugar-making homegardens with emphasis on fuel procurement in the Banyumas district, Central Java, Indonesia. Three hamlets where sugar making was an important livelihood were selected to understand various types of homegardens and fuel procurement in different ecological conditions. Fifty households in each hamlet were interviewed. In the homegardens of each hamlet, 73 to 80 % of total productive coconut trees are used for tapping flower sap. The sap is boiled and processed into coconut sugar. The more coconut sugar farmers make, the more fuel is required to boil the sap. When farmers cannot obtain fuel from their own homegardens, they must procure it somewhere else. In a hamlet mostly covered with relatively large homegardens, albizia (Paraserianthes falcataria) is increasingly mixed-planted as a new commodity in homegardens, and this provides saw dust as new fuel for sugar making. In two other hamlets, homegardens consist mainly of coconut trees, and the homegarden size is smaller. Fuel supply from these homegardens is insufficient. In one of these two hamlets, farmers have introduced shrubs for fuel, such as Gliricidia sepium and Calliandra sp., into their mixed gardens on the slopes behind the hamlet. In the other hamlet, firewoods from the state-owned forests or rice straw from paddy fields are used. Thus, fuel procurement is closely related to the size and structure of homegardens, and other land use types which farmers can access.