AGRICULTURAL POTENCY
Agricultural potency of Sabang’s area needs to be supported by the availability of fertile and suitable land for the development of various types of agricultural commodity. The current agricultural commodity is less conducive to becoming a pre-eminent commodity of the region due to less supporting condition of natural environment. The availability of current land is now relatively limited as to develop agricultural sector with the exception of paddy field agriculture which is still extensive in Aceh Island. With a typical condition of farm in Aceh Island that has hilly contour and tends to have big limitation, the agricultural land exploitation hence needs to keep maintaining and taking care of the ground and water conservation system. For example, this surely can be done by doing terracing, agro forestry, people‘s forest crop and etcetera. Seasonal crop is preferably made on a land with maximal inclination of 15%. Land inclination of 15—40% is made for annual crop or agro forestry pattern while land inclination above 40% is preferably maintained as a forest that may function to support the hydrologic condition of Sabang Island and Aceh Island.
In addition to obligatorily having land availability, the agricultural development also needs to be supported by a good management system that in turn this sector can be pre-eminent in the development of Sabang’s area. Up till now, people have been doing various agricultural efforts such as food crop and horticulture. Nevertheless, it is still carried out traditionally and with limited scale of effort. Therefore, efforts of enhancing farmer’s ability need to be reinforced as to optimize the agricultural production. In addition to supplementing local requirement, the agricultural production is also aimed at trade locally and regionally. This is so endeavored that the planted commodities such as paddy, palawija (crops planted as 2nd crop in dry season) and vegetables (kailan, paprika, salad and etcetera) can be economically of high value. The agricultural developing potency in Sabang region is spread over on some locations particularly for limited cultivation. It means that the agricultural system to develop should highlight either the ground and water conservation system or cultivation system which is environmentally well conducted.
The agricultural developing potency in Sabang region is aimed at cultivating food crop on sloping and surging area (0—15%). Meanwhile, the wet area can be exploited for the development of rice field or land fishery and in view of the area that is still available enough for the concerned matter in the region of Aceh Island.
