Land Reserves in Southern Sumatra/Indonesia and their potentialities for agricultural utilization

In contrast to overpopulated Java the neighbouring island of Sumatra still provides huge unused land reserves. However, by far not all of these reserves can be regarded as real agricultural potentials, e.g. for resettlement projects. Especially the poor soils often prove an agricultural handicap. Besides soil fertility the existing vegetation has to be conidered. Thus, for example, the so called alang alang grass savannas in general show better potentialities than forest areas, while most of the swamps prove rather unsuitable for agricultural development.With regard to the already existing landuse types the cultivation of perennial bush- and tree crops, for instance rubber, seems to be best suited for further expansions. An expansion of annual food crops would be feasible too, however only be applying heavy capital inputs; here wet rice cultivation would be more appropiate than the permanent cultivation of annual upland crops like cassava, maize, etc. The traditional shifting cultivation does not serve as an alternative any longer. Animal breeding will have its difficulties, with the exception of certain highland areas.Taking into account all ecological, social, and economic reservations it is concluded that, in spite of considerable restrictions, a good part of the land reserves in southern Sumatra could still be opened and used successfully for agricultural purposes.The present paper is based mainly on the results of the Sumatra Regional Planning Study (SRPS 1974) performed in the four southern provinces of Sumatra and financed by the governments of Indonesia and the Federal Republic of Germany besides the World Bank. Directed by H. Kötter and K. H. Junghans, an interdisciplinary team of members of the Bonn university (Fed. Rep. of Germany) and of several Indonesian institutions performed research work, the author being responsible for investigations into regional land-use. Additional contributions of importance to this study were made by H. Buchholz, M. Budianto, K. H. Junghans, P. Meimberg, R. Moertomo, Parmadi, A. Rieser, T.S. Salim and I. Satoto.Supplementary research performed in late 1977 an early 1979 was financed by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Society). We are greatly indebted to this institution for its generous assistance.