PENATAAN LAHAN MAMAR PISANG BERBASIS PERTANIAN TERPADU

Abstrak

Structuring Mamar of Banana based on Integrated Farming. Currently, mamar of banana managed by communities Ethnic Timor (East Nusa Tenggara) is the mixed cropping pattern, in which banana plants dominate the vegetation. Besides its function as one of the traditional peasant food barn, mamar also serves as a source of livestock feed. The raise of livestock is not integrated in the area of mamar. The dependence of farmers to obtain food, feed, and cash (ready money) on mamar is very high. However, it is not followed by structuring the mamar according to the agronomic management principles, so the function of mamar as barns for food sustainability could hardly be more functional. Whereas, the age of mamar is too old (more than 100 years) and without structuring, so it may become no longer productive. In order to make it more productive, the mamar requires structuring in cultivation system by using the various types of existing plants according to the recommended system of cultivation pattern, for example, alley cropping, intercropping, and alternating cropping, based on soil condition. In those cultivation systems, banana plants serve as the main plants dominating the mamar; seasonal crops and fodder grass serve as alley crops and are cultivated under intercropping and alternating cropping in an integrated and overlapping shift with livestock cultivation. The structuring mamar through space use patterns will not cause competition among plant species in the use of light and nutrients. The intensive cultivation can make the mamar of banana become more productive and sustainable as well as may give harvest any time. The form of the hoped harvests are daily harvest, monthly harvest/quarterly harvest, and yearly harvest in the ease of getting more cash by the sale of particular products. The obtained products and cash may support the food sustainability for farmers' families.

Keywords: mamar, banana, structuring, integrated.