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Forest Fire Prevention through Agricultural Innovation in the Ex-Mega Rice Project
Area in Central Kalimantan

In 1995, the Government of Indonesia initiated the Central Kalimantan Peatland Development Project – commonly known
as the Mega Rice Project - to convert up to one million hectares of peat and lowland swamp to rice cultivation. In order to
prepare the land for cultivation the peatland was drained through the construction of thousands of kilometers of canals and
forest was cut. The effects were very damaging for the environment as the soils dried and the forests degraded. Agricultural
developments were largely unsuccessful in the difficult peat land conditions. Agriculture is traditionally being practiced on
the mineral soils along the river. A diversity of food crops, estate crops and livestock is grown and reared in the area. The
limited suitability of the peat lands for agriculture often has to do with the acidity of the soils. Much land is only suitable
for a limited number of crops. This leads to low agricultural production resulting in poverty among local communities. Fire
has traditionally been used for land clearing and is still a common tool for agricultural preparations and land clearing for
other purposes. Farmers traditionally monitor fires as they burn to avoid spreading. However, when peat soils are dry and
forests are degraded they easily catch on fire. This paper aims to reduce the incidence of forest fires through the introduction
of innovative techniques that limit the use of fire in land clearing. These techniques taken from the Climate Smart Agriculture
approach will be able to support the local communities to diversify their farming methods and make use of the environmental
circumstances in which they live to increase their agricultural production and improve their livelihoods. The result show that
land clearing with limited use of fire have positive effects on agricultural production and can reduce the incidence of forest fires.