The Knowledge of Local Silviculture Agroforestry Mindi (Melia

azedarach) in Selaawi Village, Talegong Sub District, West Java

Province

R. Rambey

, N. Wijayanto

, I. Z. Siregar

, A Purwoko

, M. A. S. Nasution

Department of Forestry, Faculty ofForestry, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Jl. Tri Dharma Ujung No.1 Medan, North

Sumatera 20155, Indonesia

Faculty of Forestry, Institut Pertanian Bogor

Faculty Cultural of Science, Universitas Sumatera Utara

Keyword: Local knowledge, Agroforestry, Melia azedarach.

Abstract: Selaawi Village farmers have local knowledge in managing land with agroforestry patterns. Agroforestry

land management is one form of sustainable natural resource management. The forest development trilogy

considers economic, social and ecological sustainability. The collection of local knowledge exploration data

will be conducted through in-depth interviews, questionnaires, and Focus Group Disscussion (FGD). The

data obtained through the interview results are then compiled into statements based on the formula

(grammar) that have been applied to the Agroecological Knowledge Toolkit 5 (AKT 5) program and

analyzed descriptively. Local knowledge of Selaawi villagers consists of (a) plant propagation, (b) soil

treatment and drainage system, (c) planting and crop rotation, (d) plant maintenance (4) pest and disease

control and (e) timber harvesting.

1 INTRODUCTION

The recognition of the importance of Local

Ecologigal Knowledge (LEK) in development

according with the growing uncertainty of modern

agricultural systems, can or will provide a way out

of poverty is widespread in some countries (Nimmo,

2007). The research on local knowledge has done by

Sitompul (2011) the incense agroforestry of

Humbang Hasundutan Regency of North Sumatera.

The result of research showed that local culture

of society in cultivation of incense is financially

feasible to cultivate. In addition, incense forests also

have ecological functions for surrounding

communities. The studied by Cao (1997) on the

management of silviculture of local farmers in

Sichuan in the selection of farmers' crops is very

careful to avoid losses. The selection of plant species

for timber producing takes precedence over focused

the fruit-producing crops. Similarly, the selection of

mindi wood in Salawi village that has farmer's

decision to defend their farm.

The objectives of this study were to determine

local knowledge in managing mindi agroforestry in

Selaawi Village consisting of: (a) plant propagation,

(b) soil treatment and drainage system, (c) planting

and crop rotation, (d) crop maintenance (4) pest

control and diseases and (e) timber harvesting.

2 METHODOLOGY

This research was conducted on agroforestry land

located in Selaawi Village, administratively located

in Talegong District, Garut regency, West Java

Province. The place selection of research was

conducted purposively on agroforestry land

developed by farmers.

2.1 Exploration of Local Knowledge of

Agroforestry Systems

The data collection of this research by local

knowledge exploration will be conducted through in-

depth interviews, questionnaires, and Focus Group

Disscussion (FGD). The populution will be taken

from some key informants who are followed in mindi

agroforestry directly. The total of respondents to be

Rambey, R., Wijayanto, N., Siregar, I., Purwoko, A. and Nasution, M.

The Knowledge of Local Silviculture Agroforestry Mindi (Melia azedarach) in Selaawi Village, Talegong Sub District, West Java Province.

DOI: 10.5220/0009903100002480

In Proceedings of the International Conference on Natural Resources and Sustainable Development (ICNRSD 2018), pages 367-373

ISBN: 978-989-758-543-2

367

determined in accordance with the population that

followed in this activity. The technique of the sample

will be interviewed is by snowball sampling. The

first initial in sampe is small and then, enlarges, like a

rolling snowball that grew bigger for a long time. For

the first sample wil be chosen one or two persons,

because of these two people the data have not

completed.the researcher seeks others who are

considered more know and can complement the data

provided by the two previous people. And so on, till

the data of this research more in samples (Sugiyono,

2009). The collected data are silvicultural system,

seed technique, plant propagation and land

management technique.

2.2 Depiction of Local Ecological

Knowledge Models

Local Ecological Knowledge (LEK) is derived from

indepth interviews and field observations on land

management techniques in agroforestry system,

components in land management techniques in

agroforestry systems, and interaction between

components in land management techniques in

agroforestry systems. The data result taken from

interviewing and then completed into a statement

based on the strctural of language (grammar) that

has been applied to the Agroecological Knowledge

Toolkit 5 (AKT 5) program (Harja and Vincent,

2008). Finally, the data processed by using AKT 5

application program and analyzed descriptively.

3 RESULT AND DISSCUSSION

3.1 Plant Propagation

a. Local knowledge of plant propagation

Plant propagation activities consist of: (1) selection

of mother trees, (2) fruit harvesting, (3) the extraction

of fruit, (4) to propagation of generative and

vegetative crops. The Local ecological knowledge of

plant propagation can be seen in Figure 1.

3.1.1 Selection of Parent Tree

The selected parent tree is a straight-stemmed tree,

40 to 60 cm in diameter. the height of tree 17 to 25

meters. Tree age reaches 15 to 20 years. Healthy

plants are not affected by pests and diseases. The

parent tree growed in Selaawi Village is about 150

trees spread in farmer's garden. Physiologically, the

fruit will be mature in late August to September

each year.

3.1.2 Harvesting Fruit

Harvesting fruit is usually done in August each year.

Thefeature of fruit mature that is physiologically

with a yellowish color. The study of the criteria of

mindi mature physiological has done by Suita et al.

(2008) stated that the high seed germination is

obtained from yellowish green fruit (34.5%) and

yellow (35%). Usually, in period of mindi mature,

will begins to drop the leaves until all the fruit falls

from the tree. Harvesting of fruit is done by

climbing a tree. Before the parent tree is climbed

arounding the tree is cleaned. Firstly, it is intended

that the fallen fruit is easy to collect.One parent tree

usually produces one to two bags of fruit and usually

one parent tree climber is only able to produce 2

bags of fruit (sack of rice with 30 kg size).

3.1.3 Fruit Extraction

The shells are so hard mind that in splitting the seeds

they usually use machetes. There are two ways in

which to take the seeds from the shells of mindi, the

first is by cutting straight across and then, the visible

seeds in the shell are removed by tweezers. The

second way is fruit extraction process. The

extraction process is done by using a hammer or

machete. The process is done by eliminating the

flesh of fruits and after the flesh is off, resulting in

mindi shell. The shells are dried for 3 days. After 3

days, mindi shells begin to crack, from the sidelines

of the crack is gouged using machete and pruning

knife. The breaking technique using this machete

must be careful because the mindi seed is very soft

and easily damaged.

According to the farmer, the method of taking

good mindi seed is the second way. The reason is the

seeds are not damaged or deformed compared to

being split directly. Disabled seeds from knives can

not be used as seeds in a nursery because if they are

planted they will die in the nursery phase. In the

activities of seed expenditure fromthe one person is

able to collect one glass in a day. One glass is

equivalent to 200 grams.

Selection of seeds into good form is done by

soaking the seeds in the water. Good quality seeds

will be drowned and black. The seeds are then dried

for one to three days and ready to be seeded. Minds

that have been removed from the shell only lasted

for 3 months. After 3 months usually mindi seeds

are not good anymore. The longer the seeds kept,

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368

Figure 1: Local Ecological Knowledge planting of propagation.

the lowerits growing percentage in the nursery.

3.2 Propagation of generative and

vegetative plants

Before 2007 the mindi seeds were obtained from

the natural wrappings that grew beneath the old

mindi stands. Another technique is by burning, this

technique is used to facilitate the breaking of the

mindi skin before sowning. The technique by

burning is less effective and the germination

percent is very low.

Actually the technique of nursery in mindi is

not difficult, but there are greatest difficulty in

terms of removing the seeds from the shell. The

preparation of beds and seed media can be done

after collecting the seeds. making size of bed 50

cm x 20 m. Seedlings media composed of soil

mixed with rice husk with comparing 1:1. Rice

sekam is aimed to soil, so the removal of seedlings

will not be difficult. After that, the seeds are sown

until evenly and covered with a mixture of soil and

rice husk. Furthermore, seedlings are sprayed by

using chemical pesticides to protect the seedlings

from pests. Lastly, seedlings are covered with

plastic until 10 days. Usually the weaning process

will be held for 2.5 months (10 liters of seed

sowing). Buharman et al. (2002) states that the

media of seedlings for mindi consists a mixture of

soil, sands, compost (7: 2: 1).

According to Hani (2009) the quality of

seedlings in the nursery is influenced by genetic

and environmental factors. Environmental factors

that can affect the quality of seeds, among others,

The Knowledge of Local Silviculture Agroforestry Mindi (Melia azedarach) in Selaawi Village, Talegong Sub District, West Java Province

369

the quality of media grow as well as the intensity

of light received. Each type of plant requires

different types of media and treatments such as

meranti requires a growing medium of topsoil

containing mycorrhiza.

In vegetative propagation is also performed,

but the growth rate is very low. The technique in

vegetative propagation is by cutting. The growth

percentage is very low, which is only about 25%.

Cuttings are usually taken from seeds that are 30

cm high. The shoots are planted in the polybag

directly and covered with a leaf roof. The

maintenance is done from shoot is produced from

the cutting until the seedlings of the cuttings can be

planted in the field.

3.3 Soil Processing

Selaawi village has a slope above 15%, if not

managed with local biophysical condition is very

vulnerable to landslide. The society manage their

land by making the terrace direction contour line.

At the beginning of soil management, terrace is

made then sprayed to loose soil with the goal of

nutrients and optimal water absorbption. Making

the terrace is aimed to hold the soil to avoid

landslides and hold soil nutrients during the rainy

season so it does not get washed. Well-treated soil

will increase the porosity of the soil. High porosity

of soil according to Hardjowigeno (2007) the

number of soil pores characterized by organic

matter is influenced by texture and soil structure.

Diagram of local knowledge of soil management

can be seen in Figure 2.

Land clearing is done during the dry season,

usually in July. Cutting grassthat grow in soil with

the aim of compost as a fertilizer. After the soil

processing, the land is usually planted with

seasonal crops.

Figure 2: Local Ecological Knowledge Soil treatment.

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3.4 Planting and Crop rotation

Selaawi farmers plant the planting during the rainy

season in October every year. For mindi, the

planting in Selaawi Village was done considerably

starting in 2007. Since 2007 until now the number

of mindi that has been planted is as many as

65,000 seeds. This number showed that people's

has high interest in mindi wood. Previously,

Sengon became the mainstay of farmers. However,

because of many attacks of pests and diseases of

sengon such as stem cancer cause the selection

exchange to other. African wood grow naturally in

the farmer's garden, and then maintenance to the

wood is done until wood can be harvested.

There are several stages of planting: (1) 1 to 3

years: under tree is planted with palawija because

the seasonal plants still get full sun, (2) 3 year

Mindi: under tree planted with coffee. (3) At the

age of 3 years the closure of the canopy has started

to meet each other. Therefore it needed the right

combination of plant species.

Spacing is generally 3 m x 3 m and the planting

is done quite tightly. This is aimed that tree does

not collapse by the wind. Besides, the wood results

are straight and high free branch. The edge of the

plant used is usually aren (Arenga pinnata) and

lemongrass (Cymbopogen nardus). Lemongrass

planting is done to remove pests and diseases and

the function as soil reinforcement to avoid erosion

during rainfall. According to Departement of

forestry (2001) mindi can be planted with size 2 m

x 2 m or 2 m x 3 m, but in Paraguay mindi planted

with distance 4 m x 4 m for wood production.

Mindi tree inThailand closely with cassava, corns,

shorgum, coffees, cashews, bananas, pineapples

and others.

One of the advantages of mindi wood on the

field, the mindi wood rarely attacked by pests

because the leaves that has typical smell. In

addition, mindi who have been cut down will

usually grow again fertile. The existence of such

fertilization, causing logging mindi can be done as

much as two to three times.

Mindi seed is usually obtained by buying or

barter. Breeding is very difficult to do, only a few

people who can do their own nursery. Before 2007

the source of plant material was obtained from the

under old mindi tree and the other technique was

the hatching of the mindi by burning and then it

was seeded. Germination of the mindi by burning

is less effective and percentage is very low.

Local knowledge of planting and crop rotation

can be seen in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Local Ecological Knowledge planting and crops rotation.

The Knowledge of Local Silviculture Agroforestry Mindi (Melia azedarach) in Selaawi Village, Talegong Sub District, West Java Province

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3.5 Plant Maintenance

Plant maintenance activities consist of: (1)

fertilization, (2) watering, (3) crop rotation, (4) pest

and disease control. Local Ecological Knowledge is

presented in Figure 4.

3.5.1 Fertilization

Fertilization is done with organic or chemical

fertilizer. Organic fertilizer used is derived from

chicken manure and cow dung. Chemical fertilizers

consists urea and TSP. Fertilization is done during

the rainy season, it is intended that the fertilizer can

seep into the pores of the soil. Usually the

fertilization mindi plants will be done every three

months in year. And after one year the fertilization is

stopped. Usually thefertilization for 1-3 mindi need

2 kg of animal waste per stem at the beginning of

planting.

3.5.2 Sprinkling

Watering activities are only for seasonal crops

whereas in woody plants, no watering is need.

Water spraying is done in the afternoon during the

dry season. LEK watering plants can be seen in

Figure 4.

3.5.3 Weeding

Weeding is done to clean the trees from weeds.

Kanggai weeding activities are done every four

months. The remnants of weeding are then

stockpiled in soil. The weeding is done in the dry

season.

3.5.4 Pruning

Generally, people in Selaawi Village doesn't do

prunning because usually mindi plants have their

own prunning system. Usually the old branches of

the mindi plant will fall on its own so it does not

need pruning. In sengon trees, if pruning is done, it

will result in injuries that are easily attacked by pests

and diseases.

3.5.5 Controling of Pests and Diseases

Mindi is a type of wood that is resistant to pests and

diseases because it has a distinctive odor that is not

favored by pests. Chiffelle et al. (2009) showed that

mindi has polyphenol substances (such as

flavonoids, catechins and kaempherols) that can be

made into vegetable insecticides. The test was

performed on D. melanogaster, the mortality rate

was reached 90% (125,000 mg kg-1) with young

leaves and 73.3% (10.700 mg kg-1) with green fruit.

The pest attacks on seasonal plants such as ginger

(ginger experience decay caused by caterpillars that

attack the bulb).Usually, the attack rate is up to 30%.

Many pest found in most woody plants is attacking

sengon plants.

Figure 4: Local Ecological Knowledge plant maintenance.

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Common pests that attack the sengon tree are stem

borer and stem cancer. The plant grow until one year

old until it has begun to be attacked so that if

handling is slowly, the plant will dead. Pest attacks

on seasonal plants such as patek or fruit peston

chillies. Pests attacking the chili will cause the color

exchange with black spots so the fruit can not be

produced anymore.

3.5.6 Wood Harvesting.

Mindi can be harvested at the age of 5 years, as well

as with African and sengon wood. Wooden logs are

usually cut with a length of 4 meters. Harvesting is

done using a chainsaw. Wood harvesting can be sold

or can also be used for your own needs such as for

the manufacture of houses, such as cattle, pens, etc.

The type of wood favored by the community in the

manufacture of a house is a type of wood derived

from the mindi wood because it has a distinctive

odor as an anti-termite substance. The wood for

selfuse is usually is dried first after being cut to

avoid weathering and then stored around the house

for several days to avoid the rain, in order to prevent

the wood from being damaged.

4 CONCLUSION

Local knowledge of Selaawi villagers consists of (a)

plant propagation, (b) soil treatment and drainage

system, (c) planting and crop rotation, (d) plant

maintenance (4) pest and disease control and

(e)Wood harvesting .

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