PRESERVING THE SUSTAINABILITY OF NATURAL RESOURCES AND AGRO-ECOSYSTEMS IN TIDAL SWAMPLAND THROUGH LOCAL WISDOM IN INDONESIA

Abstract

Tidal swamplands have an important role in supporting national food security. However, there are several obstacles in using tidal swamps for agricultural business, such as high acidity and water fluctuations. To overcome these problems, there are specific agricultural technologies based on local wisdom that can raise their image from marginal land to productive land. That local wisdom is an agriculture system used in tidal swamplands. This research aims to analyse the processing of agricultural land on tidal swamplands, and to analyse the value of local wisdom in the tidal swampland management process for land sustainability. This research used a qualitative method with an ethnographic approach. The sources of the data were primary and secondary data analysed using the triangulation technique (data reduction, data display, and data verification). The results showed that Banjarese rice farmers applied local wisdom for their rice fields. Cutting, rolling, flipping and spreading the grass is a form of local wisdom from South Kalimantan, which represent the principles of conservation so that swampland can be planted continuously. The government, as the stakeholders, can use the results of this study as a reference for applying the Banjarese local wisdom for agriculture. Keywords: Local wisdom, tidal swampland, agriculture, sustainability, agro-ecosystem