Integrated farming system of cattle and oil palm plantation increasing population and diversity of soil fauna in Ultisols soils

Abstract

Integrated farming system is an agricultural practice that must be done for sustainable agriculture. The objectives of the research were to compare the population and diversity of soil meso fauna in the oil palm plantations applying with integrated farming system of cattle and oil palm plantation (IFSCO) and without IFSCO (non-IFSCO) in Ultisols soil. The research was conducted in two oil palm plantations, i.e. oil palm plantation with IFSCO (5 ha) and without IFSCO (non-IFSCO) (5 ha) applications which were located in the Karya Makmur Village, Tulang Bawang District, Lampung, Indonesia. The research was arranged using surveys and with systematic methods for sampling soil, earthworm, and mesofauna. Population of earthworm and soil mesofauna were enumerated by hand sorting methods and trapped with Barlese-Tullgreen funnel, respectively. The results showed that the application of IFSCO had a higher population and biomass of earthworm as well as abundance and diversity of soil mesofauna than that non-IFSCO. There are two types of dominant earthworms and 12 species of mesofauna in IFSCO soil, and 9 species in that of non-IFSCO. Several physical and chemical properties of soils are positively correlated with the presence of these soil fauna.