Sistem Pertanaman Lorong: Keunggulan, Kelemahan, Peluang dan Tantangan Serta Pengembangan Strategi Implementasinya di Lahan Kering DAS Hulu

Upland in Indonesia is a potential land, from area point of view, to be developed as an agricultural area. However, agricultural business in this area is faced with several obstacles, because the land is widely spread in mountainous areas with a steep topography that is prone to erosion. Therefore, conservation farming system is absolutely needed in this area. Mechanical soil conservation techniques such as bench terraces, which have been widely known and farmer-friendly, are believed to reduce erosion, but this technique is not always suitable to be implemented in all conditions other than requiring high cost. Therefore, vegetative conservation techniques are more suggested to control erosion in this area. Alley cropping system is a vegetative conservation technique that has been proven effective in controlling erosion and runoff, nutrient loss, increasing land and crop productivity, cost efficient and can be adopted by farmers based on the research results. Thus, the alley cropping system is likely to be developed in upland area with attention to its advantages and disadvantages. This paper presents the advantages and disadvantages of alley cropping system and the opportunities and challenges that will be faced in its implementation in upland based on SWOT (strengths, weeknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis. Development of strategy for implementation of alley cropping system includes technical and non technical strategy.