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Land Use Planning for Paddy Field in Aileu District, Timor-Leste
Thesis Abstract:
Aileu is one of the districts of Timor-Leste where natural resources provide high possibilities for paddy field development. However in practice, there are many obstacles related to the unavailability of land resource potential information. The main objective of the research was to plan land utilization for paddy field to improve food security. To achieve this main objective, the specific objectives of this study were (1) to delineate land use/land cover and paddy field of Aileu District, (2) to model land suitability area using multi-criteria evaluation for paddy field, (3) to calculate food requirement, and (4) to plan land utilization for paddy field area.
The research used primary and secondary data. The primary data used were sample point (ground check) for each type of land use and interviews using questionnaires to the respondents; stakeholders were selected based on their expertise. Secondary data used consisted of spatial data, tabular data, and literature research paper. Spatial data used were Landsat 8 imagery, Aileu administration map, land use map, annual rainfall map, soil map, topographic map, infrastructure map, tabular data such as soil data of analysis result, and statistics. The equipment used were Global Positioning System (GPS), ArcGIS 10.1, and Microsoft Excel.
Analysis of existing paddy field and land use was conducted by interpreting Landsat 8 imagery. Land suitability analysis was performed using overlay method and multi-criteria evaluation (weighted method). The weights of physical factor, economic factor, and techniques factor were obtained by interview through a questionnaire. Calculating food requirement was done by using the projection of rice field analysis. Analysis of the priority planning for paddy field development was done spatially using Geographic Information System (GIS) integrating results of land use analysis and paddy field land suitability analysis.
The research results indicated that the land use in Aileu District can be classified into six different types of land uses—dominated by forest area, which was 65 percent of the total area of Aileu District. Land use that was categorized as available for paddy field development consisted of dry lowland forest and logged over lowland of forest. Existing paddy field areas were identified within an area of 861 ha or 1.19 percent, which consisted of irrigated rice and rainfed rice that were located in subdistrict of Aileu ViIa and Remexio, and were dominated by irrigated rice. The land suitability for paddy field that was available was 65,851 ha, and was divided into three categories of suitability (S1, S2, S3).
Land requirements for paddy field in the district of Aileu was projected to increase from 1,062 ha in 2010 to 1,238 ha in 2020. In 2010 up to 2015, Aileu District had not reached rice self-sufficiency. Meanwhile, existing rice in 2016 was 861.22 ha, therefore, there were existing additional land requirement from the potential land of priority planning (P1 and P2) until year 2020. The strategy needed to be applied in the development of paddy field area was aggressive policy. A concrete step that could be done is intensification and extensification of paddy field area to increase rice production to meet the demand for rice by utilizing the potential of land resources that are suitable and available. Human resource capacity and technology should be developed in order to increase food production capacity.
The increasing number of population in Aileu District with a percentage growth of 1.81 percent until the year 2020 will give a significant influence on rice availability. Local government should plan land utilization optimally; utilization of available land for paddy field should be with the intensification and extensification of agriculture. This is to increase rice production and reduce the amount of demand for rice in the national level.