Local food security Staff Site Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta

159 ISSN 2086-5953 IMPACT OF SOCIO-ECOLOGY INTERACTION ON LOCAL FOOD SECURITY AND FOOD CULTURE Wahyudi David Faculty of Agricultural Technology, University of Andalas Padang 25163, Indonesia Email: wahyudidavidyahoo.co.id ABSTRACT The basic idea improving local food security consists of two paths; both accessibility price, stock and availability quantity and biodiversity; both are needed to be fulfilled in order to provide nutritious and continuous food supply with locally available resources. The objectives of this paper are to describe the impact of socio-ecology interaction through the protection of indigenous knowledge IK in local communities and to detect its contribution to local food security and food culture. Participatory rural appraisal PRA approach was used to investigate the IK in four different sites in West Sumatera. Qualitative and quantitative research technique includes: in-depth interview and survey were carried out in cooperation with local stakeholders. The data was coded and clustered by using MAXQDA10 software. The result showed evidences that IK in traditional farming system TFS was protecting the biodiversity but on the other hand the lower competitiveness of TFS and degradation of IK resulted in low agricultural income and forced farmers to change their food culture, so that potentially leading to food insecurity. In order to protect biodiversity, improvement of self reliance on local resources through empowerment, protection of indigenous knowledge and subsidy of the farmers is an emergency task for the local government. Keywords: Socio-ecology, food security, food culture, traditional farming system. 1 INTRODUCTION Local food security closely related to accessibility and availability including diversity of food with considers local biodiversity. Furthermore, food culture is awareness and responsibility of people on their ecological environment while choosing, preparing, consuming and enjoying food [1]. Food security and food culture are linked with the aesthetic and the landscape which resulted socio-ecology interaction. Meanwhile, indigenous knowledge is a product of the adaptation of traditional farming systems TFS to the local environment, creating unique indigenous farming practices and food culture which are usually rich in biodiversity, creating a demand for biodiversity-rich agricultural products. Therefore the study is needed to know if interaction between socio and ecology through the protection of indigenous knowledge IK contribute to local food security and food culture. 2 MATERIAL AND METHODS The study is located in Nagari Ulakan NU coastal area, Nagari Aia Batumbuak NAB hilly area, Nagari Padang Laweh Malalo NPLM lake area, Nagari Pandai Sikek NPS hilly area West Sumatera Indonesia with annual rainfall ranged between 1600 – 4762 mm. The altitude ranged from 7-1094 m and temperature ranged from 19-38° C. Data was collected by using Participatory rural appraisal PRA to investigate the IK and socio- ecology interaction, which is also combining with in depth interview, life history, semi-structure- questionnaire, pictures, mapping, and expert interview. The data was collected from June - September 2009 and June 2010. 50 respondent each site was voluntarily participated. Data was analyzed by performing MAXQDA 10, and F4 audio analysis software created and developed by Philip- University Marburg. The data was clustered based on causality. 3 RESULT

3.1 Local food security

Rainfall and temperature altitude effect are the two main determinants of plant growth rate and diversity [2]. But the topographical factors alone are not sufficient to preserve biodiversity especially with current conditions under very extreme climate changes. This evident from four study areas only NPLM that can maintain food-biodiversity with 3 main crops, 4 varieties of vegetable, 19 varieties of ISSN 2086-5953 fruit and 12 varieties of spices table 1. The awareness of local people in NPLM is the main reason of biodiversity preservation, they realized that they lived in unfavourable climate and topography in comparison to the other area; therefore they were more prepared for any changes. Furthermore, they are more initiating to cultivate spices in their backyard home garden. It proved that interventions of human wisdom through TFS could be positively protecting biodiversity. Farmers have very fragile income with the most of them having income between Rp.500.000- Rp.1.000.000 55.5-111.1 n = 90 which still fluctuates depend on the price when harvest season. They can gain more then Rp.1.000.000 111.1 when good market price. The related study shows the fluctuating farmers revenues between farmers and seasons did not guarantee sustainable of the long term of farming system [3] and compounded with 11.25 of their income spent for rice which make them under food insecurity [4].

3.2 Food Culture