Climate Resilient Sustainable Agriculture for Restoring the Soil Health and Increasing Rice Productivity as Adaptation Strategy to Climate Change in Indonesia

Abstract Climate change (CC) is real and threatens the livelihood of most smallholder farmers who reside along the coastal area. The CC causes the rise of temperature (0.2-0.3°C/decade) and sea level (SRL = 5 mm/year), drought and floods to occur more frequently, the change of rainfall intensity and pattern and shifting of planting season and leads to the decreasing of crop yield or yield loss. Most of the paddy soil has been exhausted and degraded. About 50% of the rice field along the coastline is effected by high salinity and causes significant yield losses. The research was aimed to summarize the results of the system of organic based aerobic rice intensification (known as IPATBO) and of two climate filed school (CFS) in Cinganjeng and Rawapu that situated along the coastline of Pangandaran and Cilacap. Both IPATBO and CFS have adopted the strategy of climate-resilient sustainable agriculture (CRSA) for restoring the soil health and increasing rice productivity, and as well as to empower the farmer community. The implementation of IPATBO (2010-2020) in the different areas has increased the soil health, fertilizers, and water efficiency (reduce inorganic by 25-50%, and water by 30-40%) and increased rice productivity by at least 25-50%. Both CFS in Ciganjeng and Rawaapu were able to improve soil fertility, increase rice productivity, and farmer capacity. This result concludes the agro-ecological based CRSA and CFS can be adopted for the increasing the resilient of agricultural practices and farmers in adapting to climate change