Soil conservation and poverty: Lessons from upland Indonesia

Soil conservation efforts in Indonesia since the Dutch colonial era have focused on introducing bench terraces—a costly soil conservation method for poor, upland farmers. Data from two villages in the Kerinci uplands of Sumatra illustrate that even with state underwriting of bench terrace construction, farmers across all economic strata still resist using this method. Why the state has not pursued alternative soil conservation approaches—especially ones that entail the “conservation farming “ approach and that can better build upon the diversity of upland farming systems—is discussed in the context of the state's emphasis on productivist and commodity‐led agricultural development and on broader geopolitical institutions and forces that perpetuate this approach. Given these constraints, state underwriting of soil conservation for poor farmers (i.e., providing “landesque capital”; in Blaikie and Brookfield's 1987 terminology) suggests undue hope through economic remedies and the ability of the state to implement environmental and social reform, especially to benefit the poor.

Keywords:

• Indonesia
• political ecology
• political economy
• poverty
• soil conservation
• terraces