The Economics of Transmigrant Farming

The basic agronomy of government-sponsored transmigration areas in Indonesia's Outer Islands has often not been well understood. The soils are commonly fragile podzolie soils which quickly break down once the forest is removed leaving low levels of nutrients. Farmer experience in these areas suggests that the requirements of high fertihser and high labour inputs and the lack of adequate transportation and marketing infrastructure make a continuous food cropping strategy difficult to adopt. From the standpoint of soils management, input requirements and operator time costs per hectare, perennial crops, peanuts and livestock offer the best returns.