ABSTRACT
During the latter half of the 20th century, intensive agriculture increased crop yields and was successful in meeting the growing demand for food, but it also degraded the natural resources upon which agriculture depends-soil, water resources, and natural genetic diversity [1,2]. Today, conventional agriculture is built around two related goals: the maximization of production and the maximization of profi t. In pursuit of these economic goals, a host of practices have been developed without regard for their unintended long-term consequences and without consideration of the ecological dynamics of agroecosystems. Millennium Ecosystem Assessment [3] revealed that the overuse and mismanagement of pesticides
poisons the water and soil, while nitrogen and phosphorus inputs and livestock wastes have become major pollutants of surface water, aquifers, and coastal wetlands and estuaries. These situations are also serious and cause severe ecological problems in the tropical biological environment, especially in Indonesia.
