Rubber vs. oil palm: an analysis of factors influencing smallholders’ crop choice in Jambi, Indonesia

Schwarze, Stefan / Michael Euler / Marcel Gatto / Jonas Hein / Elisabeth Hettig / Anna Maria Holtkamp / Lufti Izhar / Yvonne Kunz / Jan Lay / Jenny Merten / Stefan Moser / Oliver Mußhoff / Fenna Otten / Martin Qaim / Endriatmo Soetarto / Stefanie Steinebach
Externe Publikationen (2015)

Göttingen: Georg-August-Univ., (EFForTS Discussion Paper Series 11)

The rapid expansion of the oil palm area in many tropical countries has raised concerns about its negative impact on local communities, food security, and on the environment. While the expansion of oil palm in early stages was mainly driven by large private and public companies, it is expected that smallholders will outnumber large estates in the near future. For policy formulation it is hence important to better understand who these smallholders are and why they have started to cultivate oil palm. In this paper, we used a rich dataset collected in the province of Jambi, which is one of the most important production areas for oil palm, to analyze smallholders’ decision making by combining qualitative, quantitative, and experimental methods.