An Analysis of the utilization of Gamal Plant (Gliricidia sepium) as a shade for coffee plants

Indonesia is the largest coffee exporter in the world, which is in the fourth position after Brazil, Vietnam and Colombia. However, the productivity of coffee produced from year to year tends to decrease and not optimal. This happens because of many factors, one of which is the type of shade plants used. Inappropriate shade plants affect the growth and productivity of coffee plants. The purpose of this research was to analyze the utilization of Gamal plant (Gliricidia sepium) as a shade for coffee plants. The respondents of this research were 35 coffee farmers in Jember and Banyuwangi regencies. The research variables measured included the types of coffee shade plants, reasons for using shade plants and farmers' knowledge about Gamal plant as a shade for coffee plants. The data collection was carried out using survey, interview and questionnaire. The data collection was done directly with the primary source. The results of this research informed that the shade plants used by coffee farmers were varied, such as banana, lamtoro, coconut tree, Gamal, avocado and sengon trees. Most of the coffee farmers used bananas by 86%, avocados by 65%, and wood by 46% as a shade. They chose the plants because they were easier to maintain, cheap seeds and produced fruit and woods which could be sold. Based on the literature, the most effective shade plants for coffee plants were Gamal plants. However, Gamal plant (Gliricidia sepium) is still not widely used by coffee farmers because the seeds are too expensive and it does not produce fruit that can be sold. The conclusion of this research was that most of the coffee farmers were still unaware and did not use Gamal as a shade plants.


Introduction
Indonesia is the largest coffee exporter in the world, which is in the fourth position after Brazil, Vietnam and Colombia. There are two types of coffee varieties widely cultivated in Indonesia, namely Robusta and Arabica coffees (Anggraeni, 2016). Coffee production in Indonesia has been exported to several countries in the world, such as Germany, the United States, Italy, Japan, Egypt, Belgium and Russia. However, the productivity of coffee produced in Indonesia from year to year tends to decrease and not optimal. Coffee production statistics on the Ministry of Agriculture data in 2016/2017 stated that the development of coffee production from 2012 to 2016 tended to decrease as much as 691.16 tons, 675.88 tons, 643.86 tons, 639.31 tons, 637.54 tons respectively (Sedana, 2019). The decrease in coffee production was caused by various factors, one of which was the type of shade plants used since it affected the growth and the results of coffee production. The results of coffee production are varied according to the shade plants used. Each shade plants had different characteristics and different impacts on coffee plants (Davis, 2019).
Shade plants has important roles in the growth of coffee plants, which are reducing the amount of sunlight intensity exposure and affecting the coffee plants as well as increasing the nutrient cycle in the soil. Shade plants created a microclimate in coffee plants. With the presence of shade plants, sunlight does not affect the coffee plants directly. The sunlight intensity decreases based on the characteristics of the shade plants. The intensity of sunlight, the amount, and quality of sunlight are very influential on plants" physiology. Therefore, shade plants affected the growth, production and quality of coffee produced (Rigal, 2018 (Premono, 2018).
One of the good and effective shade plants that are able to increase and maximize coffee yield is Gliricidia sepium. This plant belongs to the tree group. A medium-size tree with trunks of 10m to 15m and has a wide canopy. This tree thrives in deep soil and has a good drainage. This tree also grew in shallow soils that had high calcium (Marak, 2018). This tree optimally regulated the amount and distribution of optimal sunlight for the growth of coffee plants (Marak, Reddy, 2010). Gliricidia sepium"s leaves are 2cm to 7cm long and 1cm to 3cm wide, so they provide light intensity that is suitable for coffee plants (Pratami, 2018). In addition, Gliricidia sepium naturally repairs damaged soil due to disaster succession, barren land and grow well on steep slopes. Gliricidia sepium grew fast and was multipurpose, so it was used in the improvement of ecosystems and agroforesty (Cherian, 2019).
The existence of Gliricidia sepium which has maximum shade increases the growth and productivity of coffee. The use of Gliricidia sepium as a good coffee shade plants has been proven and known as well as used by several countries in the world such as America, India, and has popularity in Asia, especially South Asia (Marak, Reddy, 2010, and Cherian 2019). Therefore, a research on the utilization of Gliricidia sepium as a coffee shade plants in Indonesia is needed. The purpose of this research was to analyze the utilization of Gliricidia sepium as a coffee shade plants.

Methodology
This research used mixed method approach that is a research approach which combines qualitative and quantitative methods. Qualitative research is a method that understands the meaning which is in some group or individual is assumed as a problem. Quantitative method is a method to test a theory by investigating the relationship between variables. This research employed a descriptive research method. Descriptive method explains, analyzes, and presents facts in the form of data systematically and accurately. The data collection methods were questionnaire and interview, survey and interview that were done directly to the primary source.
Survey and interview was carried out through snowball sampling technique. It is a nonprobability sampling technique used to collect data in order to be able to answer the research problem. The principle of snowball sampling technique is to find out the information about a case. Survey and interview were done with one informant to another. Snowball sampling technique is a sampling method used to get the sample through a circular process from one respondent to another. The following Figure 1 is snowball sampling technique done in this research.

Result
The results of the research were types of coffee shade plants, reasons for using shade plants and farmers' knowledge about Gamal plant as a shade for coffee plants.

The Type of the Coffee Shade Plants Used by the Farmers
The following Figure 2 is the variety of the coffee shade plants used by the coffee farmers.

The Reason in Choosing the Shade Plants
The following Table 1 is some reasons in choosing the shade plants used by the farmers. Based on table 1, it can be seen that there were 4 questions proposed to the farmers pertinent to the reason for using certain shade plants.
The first question "to improve the coffee production" got answered as many as 12%. The second question "caring and handling that are not too complicated" got answered by 46%. The third question, "to take the fruit and stems to be sold" got answered by 83%. The fourth question, "use shade plants due to its cheap or free seeds" got answered as many as 69%. Based on the explanation above, it can be concluded that most of the coffee farmers chose shade plants that produced fruit and wood to be sold.

The Farmers' Knowledge about Gamal Plant as a Shade for Coffee Plants
The following table 2 is the farmers" knowledge of Gliricidia sepium as coffee shade plants. Based on table 2, the farmers" knowledge of Gliricidia sepium as the coffee shade plants presented in 7 questions. The first question "do you know that Gliricidia sepium can be used as coffee shade plants?" got results as many as 100%. The second question "do you know that using Gliricidia sepium can increase coffee productivity?" was answered as many as 72%.The third question, "do you know Gliricidia sepium is one of the shade plants that is very good for the growth and productivity of coffee plants?" got answered by 63%. The fourth question "Do you use Gliricidia sepium on your coffee plantations?" got results as many as 6%. The fifth question "do you know that Gliricidia sepium root can secrete secondary metabolites to inhibit the growth of weeds?" was answered as many as 0%. The sixth question "do you know that Gliricidia sepium leaves can be used as a health benefit?" got answered as many as 0%. The seventh question "do you know that Gliricidia sepium pruning can be processed and used as a natural pepticide to eradicate weeds?" got answered by 3%.

Discussion
A plant is categorized as shade plants if it fulfills the requirement of shade plants" characteristics. The characteristics of shade plants are having shade that can reduce the amount of sunlight in order to avoid direct exposure to the coffee plant. Plants which are able to stabilize the temperatures of soil and air. Plants which had roots grown in the soil and leaves which were not too wide so that it would not cover the entire sunlight (Valladares, 2014 Concerning the characteristics of each dominant shade tree; one of them was banana tree, in general, its stems reach about 3m, has broad leaves and do not have shade shapes and has roots growing above the surface of soil (Vilhena, 2019). Regarding its characteristics, banana got no characteristics that suited the characteristics of shade plants, so that the use of bananas as shade plants gave less effect on the growth of coffee plants. Hence, the shade plants involved Persea americana, Musa paradisiaca, Leucaena leucephala, Cocos nucifera, Gliricidia sepium and Falacataria mollucana. Gliricidia sepium was considered as an appropriate and effective shade plants for coffee plant. It was in line with what other researches stated that a good and effective shade plants was able to increase and maximize coffee crops was Gliricidia sepium. Gliricidia sepium was defined as a living pillar of coffee plant because it was superfine and effective to provide shade to coffee plant (Chaverri, 2015). Nowdays, most farmers are no longer used Gliricidia sepium as a shade plants, they choose Musa paradisiacal, Falacataria mollucana and Persea americana. It is due to several reasons as the farmers selected the shade plants in utilizing the fruits and stems, so that they are sold to as their side income. The farmers used the shade based on the cheap and free seeds. They chose the shade plants which are easy to handle. Most of them did not think of any shade plants which was able to increase the coffee production. Most of them took the shade trees to take fruit and stems to be sold as their side income, without even considering the frowth of coffee by using the bad shade plants.
The farmers were lack of understanding about Gliricidia sepium as a good and effective shade plants for coffee. According to the results of the questionnaire about the understanding of Gliricidia sepium, all farmers understood that Gliricidia sepium was able to be used as a coffee shade plants. Some of them even knew how to use Gliricidia sepium as a shade crop in which it fostered the productivity of coffee and their answers percentage reached 72%. Their knowledge about Gliricidia sepium as one of the best shade plants for the growth and productivity of coffee plants reached 63%. However, only 6% of the coffee farmers used Gliricidia sepium in the coffee plantation. It was caused by the things that were already explained before, this crop was not capable in obtaining enough economic value as side income, this became a main reason why they did not use Gliricidia sepium.
Based on the literature, Gliricidia sepium is used as a drug-making material since its leaves contains compounds which are used for pharmacology (Oladunmoye, 2018). Other researches pointed out that Gliricidia sepium was used as a medicine for diarrhea since its leaves had flavinoid compound which reduced the growth of Escherchia coli bacteria (Sukumar, 2014). The coffee farmers still did not know that Gliricidia sepium"s leaves were used as a health interest. In addition, they were not aware that the roots of Gliricidia sepium released the secondary metabolites to inhibit the growth of weeds. The pruning of Gliricidia sepium was processed and used as a natural pepticide to exterminate the weeds. Only 3% of farmers figured out that Gliricidia sepium was used as a natural pepticide.

Conclusion and Recommendation
Based on the results and analysis of the data, the conclusion drawn was the coffee farmers intended to use other shade plants which was easier to maintain. They selected one that has cheap seeds and produced fruit, wood that were able to be sold. The literature said that the most effective shade plants for coffee plant was Gamal plants. However, this plant was not widely used by the community of coffee farmers as its seeds were too expensive and did not produce fruit which were able to be sold. Most community of coffee farmers still did not realize and use Gliricidia sepium as a shade plant. Thus, further research needs to be conducted regarding the processing of Gliricidia sepium so that it will have sale value, so the farmers will use Gliricidia sepium as a shade plants to increase the productivity of coffee in Indonesia.