Agroforestry Sustains Nearly All Household Income in Bu'u Bei Community Forest, Ende

Image: article cover, from Tiga et al. (2024), Jurnal Wasian, licensed CC BY 4.0.

Agroforestry is the backbone of livelihoods for members of the Bu'u Bei Community Forest (Hutan Kemasyarakatan, HKm) in Tina Bani Village, Ende District, Ende Regency, East Nusa Tenggara. A research team from the Forestry Study Programme, Faculty of Agriculture, Nusa Cendana University, recorded that in 2023 agroforestry contributed 98.87% of the total household income of HKm members. The study, published in the Journal Wasian, involved all 47 member households of the HKm, which manages 90 hectares within a production forest area.

Residents practise an agrisilvicultural system, planting forest trees alongside food and cash crops in a randomly mixed planting pattern inherited from generation to generation. Estate crops such as arabica coffee (Coffea arabica), robusta coffee (Coffea canephora), cloves (Syzygium aromaticum), vanilla (Vanilla planifolia), candlenut (Aleurites moluccana) and cocoa (Theobroma cacao) are the main sources of income because they are sold in large quantities. Meanwhile, food crops such as cassava, taro, banana and papaya are mostly consumed by the households themselves, and trees such as mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla) and sengon (Albizia chinensis) are used for shade and as building materials for homes.

Nevertheless, the study notes infrastructure constraints. Severely damaged roads mean that the 27-kilometre journey from residents' settlements to Ende Market takes 2–3 hours, making transport costs the largest expense in agroforestry management. This condition restricts market access and suppresses the economic potential of the agroforestry system. The research team considers that an integrated land management approach is needed, one that repairs infrastructure while strengthening agroforestry resilience, as a reference for local government and stakeholders in supporting sustainable forest management and rural development.

Source and how to cite

This story is based on the research article Assessing Agroforestry Impact on Household Income: A Study of the Bu’u Bei Community Forest (HKm) in Tina Bani Village, Ende, Indonesia by Elfrida Kastila Ine Tiga, Lusia Sulo Marimpan, Astin Elise Mau and Nixon Rammang, published in Jurnal Wasian Vol. 11 No. 2 (2024). The full article is free to read on the Jurnal Wasian website.

Cite the original article (APA 7):

Tiga, E. K. I., Marimpan, L. S., Mau, A. E., & Rammang, N. (2024). Assessing Agroforestry Impact on Household Income: A Study of the Bu’u Bei Community Forest (HKm) in Tina Bani Village, Ende, Indonesia. Jurnal Wasian, 11(2), 39–47. https://doi.org/10.62142/5jw1by08

If you use these findings in coursework, a thesis or other writing, cite the original article above, not this news story. The original article is licensed CC BY 4.0.