Method THE DEVELOPMENT OF SUSTAINABLE ORGANIC RICE FARMING USING SRI IN THE DSTRICT OF SUKABUMI

56 from three aspects, i.e., economic, social and environmental. The economic aspect concern with the productivity which in turns is related to how sustainable is the organic rice farming financially. The social aspect can be associated with the awareness and interest of the farmers to adopt the SRI method. The economic and environmental aspects among others can be associated with the utilization of animal and other agricultural farming wastes as well as other sources for the production of organic fertilizers in the form of compost, bokashi or direct utilization. The most efficient and economic utilization of agricultural wastes for organic fertilizer might be the production of compost from paddy straw. It can be combined or supplemented by compost made from cattle wastes manure and urine. The District of Sukabumi is likely to have the potential to supply both sources of organic wastes. The utilization of wastes for organic fertilizer is one of the methods or systems in order to reduce the hazard of environmental pollution. This study had the objective to make an analysis of some factors to support planning purposes of the development of sustainable SRI organic rice farming in the District of Sukabumi by means of modeling approach.

6.2. Method

The development of SRI organic rice farming in the District of Sukabumi depends upon at least three factors, i.e., the willingness of farmers to adopt the SRI method social factor; the availability of paddy fields or ‘sawah’ with technical irrigation and high productivity economic factor; and production of organic fertilizers to some extend can be related to environmental factor. The adoption of the SRI method is a social matter concerning the change in attitude of the farmer which usually takes time. How long the change would it take depends upon how farmers can be convinced to adopt the new method. A motto that usually works with farmers is ‘seeing is believing’. The change itself needs a process which usually can be done through intensive training program or simply just follow the neighbors or colleagues who have been successful. Basically, a farmer is a good businessman who exactly knows what is good or bad for him. Data required and used in this study were of secondary data collected from the local bureau of statistics and other local government offices. The data 57 primarily comprised the historical data of local populations of people and animal for several years. Other important data was the availability of arable land primarily paddy fields with technical irrigation. Land with technical irrigation was selected because SRI method or farming required easily managed water. In this study, the sources of organic fertilizer were limited to agricultural organic wastes comprising paddy straw and animal wastes in particular dairy and beef cattle. The collected data were used to make some predictions or forecasting for future condition. Population growth of people and animal was used for estimating the available source of organic fertilizer needed for SRI organic rice farming. Due to limited available data, Verhulst growth model is suitable to be used for that purpose Burghes Borrie 1981. Some optimization processes were conducted using Excel Server software. The general equation of the model is expressed as follows: 1 The model was also used to predict the growth of land utilized for SRI organic farming based on the available data with some assumptions. The result was used to calculate the organic fertilizer required yearly for organic farming. All predictions were made for future condition from 2006 up to 2020, in order to analyze the potential sustainability of the SRI organic rice farming in the District of Sukabumi. This would give the general picture of the development of sustainable organic rice farming using SRI method.

6.3. Results and Discussion