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Three
overview papers set the stage for the rest of the papers in the volume.
Fuglie, Ilangantileke and Walker describe how CIP envisions using
improved potato and sweetpotato technology to reduce poverty in Asia. In
much of the continent these crops are produced primarily by poor
households on small plots, and the economic benefits from productivity
improvements in these commodities are likely to strongly benefit these
poor. CIP has carefully chosen its research agenda in order to maximize
the benefits to the poor by focusing on the productivity constraints of
greatest significance to these farmers.
For Indonesia, Dimyati lays out the national vision for potato
development and the research agenda needed to meet this vision.
Potato has emerged as an important commercial crop and good
income earner for small farms in Indonesia’s highland areas.
Sustainable growth in potato productivity can make an important
contribution to the economic development of these rural areas and meet
the growing market demand for horticultural commodities. Similarly, Hasanudin and Wargiono describe the national
agenda for sweetpotato research. A critical aspect of sweetpotato
research and development is to promote new markets for sweetpotato
utilization to meet the rising demand for processed food products and
animal feed. Together, the papers in this volume provide an overview of
much of the current research efforts in Indonesia to improve
productivity of these commodities.
Progress
in Potato Research in Indonesia
It
is a good time to take stock of our progress in improving potato
productivity in Indonesia. A
very minor crop 20 years ago, potato has become one of the most
important vegetable commodities produced in the country. Between the
mid-1970s and the mid-1990s, annual potato production in Indonesia grew
by six-fold, from about 150,000 tons to over 900,000 tons per year. Most
of this growth was due to area expansion, but yield also significantly
improved, doubling from 8 tons/hectare in the mid-1970s to 16
tons/hectare in the mid-1990s. Farmers adopted new varieties, learned to
grow and use higher quality seed, intensified their use of inputs, and
adopted improved management practices to achieve these productivity
improvements. But there are still considerable opportunities for
overcoming yield constraints, improving production efficiency, and
responding better to market demands.
One
of the disappointments of past potato research in Indonesia has been the
lack of uptake by farmers of newly varieties released by the national
agricultural research program. Most farmers continue to rely on a single
European-bred potato variety, Granola, rather than Indonesian-bred
varieties. The papers by Sinung-Basuki et al., and Gunadi et al. report
on new and innovative methods of variety evaluation and selection in
which various stakeholders (farmers, processors, consumers, etc.) are
directly involved in the research process in order to assure success
that new varieties will be accepted by users.
Another
constraint of potato production in Indonesia (and in most developing
countries around the world) is the available of quality, low-cost seed.
The papers by Jayasinghe, Suri and Jayasinghe, and Sofian
describe various aspects of the potato seed situation in Indonesia and
suggest strategies for overcoming the seed quality constraint.
One important new finding is the significance of potato root
nematode in Central Java (Suri and Jayasinghe), a disease that is easily
spread through seed if not properly controlled.
Another aspect is the growing complexity of the potato seed
system in Indonesia, and the need for good technique and appropriate
regulations to achieve consistent quality in the formal seed system.
Potato
is beset by a number of pest and diseases that constrain its high yield
potential. Bacterial wilt
remains one of the most important potato diseases for which neither
resistant varieties nor chemical controls are readily available. Oni et
al. describe continued efforts to develop components of integrated
disease management of bacterial wilt.
Farmers must practice good seed selection, crop rotation, and
field sanitation if this disease is to be properly controlled.
Potato
is a cash crop for most farmers in Indonesia, and complex marketing
patterns have developed. Indonesia is both a major export of fresh table
potatoes and an importer of potato seed and potato processed products.
Witono, Fuglie and Rachman describe trends in potato trade giving
particular attention to the potato export marketing system in North
Sumatra. A major share of
the crop from this province is marketed to Malaysia and Singapore.
The recent decline in Indonesia’s potato exports after more
than a decade of rapid growth is attributed to the growth in domestic
demand for potato and from growing competition from other countries in
Asian potato markets. Fuglie,
Rachman and Witono provide statistical evidence on the demand parameters
for fresh and processed potato products for Indonesia and other
countries in Southeast Asia. The phenomenal growth in demand for potato
processed products (especially French fries) is strongly correlated with
rising per capita income and urbanization in this part of the world.
These factors also positively influence the demand for fresh table
potatoes. The future market
potential for potato in Southeast Asia is bright.
As
we look to the future (and as agricultural scientists we need to be
thinking today about what will be the needs five to ten years ahead),
potato production in Indonesia will continue to grow rapidly in order to
meet rising market demand. A
greater share of the increase in production will likely come from yield
increases, but area expansion will continue to play an important role.
As we look to new promising areas for expanding potato area,
highland areas of West Sumatra and neighbor Jambi Province look
especially promising. In the paper by Nurdin, the current potato
situation in West Sumatra is described.
About 2,000 hectares are currently sown to potatoes each year,
but the technical level of farmers is generally low.
With improved technology, especially more suitable varieties,
better seed quality, and integrated crop management, potato production
in this part of Indonesia could rapidly expand in both area and yield.
Progress
in Sweetpotato Research in Indonesia
A
different set of challenges face the future of sweetpotato in Indonesia.
Sweetpotato production in the Indonesian and Melanesian island
groups dates back to pre-Colombian times, and Indonesia possess a rich
set of indigenous sweetpotato genetic resources.
Traditional, sweetpotato has been a staple food in the eastern
part of the country (Papua Province especially) and an important food
security crop in the densely populated island of Java. But technical
progress in sweetpotato in Indonesia has been slow, and production has
remained stagnant at around two million tons per year over the past two
decades. A key challenge facing sweetpotato is to develop new uses for
the crop, especially in starch and flour processing.
The trend toward greater utilization of sweetpotato for
agro-processing is slowing taking place. But one critical requirement is
new and improved production technology to raise yields and reduce unit
production costs in order to make sweetpotato a competitive source of
raw material in agro-processing.
The
paper by Saleh and Hartojo provide a review of sweetpotato research in
Indonesia over the past twenty years. Although research investment in
sweetpotato in Indonesia has been modest, an impressive body of
knowledge has accumulated and steady improvements have been made in
genetic resource conservation, varietal development, and crop management
methods. Sweetpotato marketing and market development are areas where
significant research gaps remain. The
paper by Fuglie on economic prospects for root crop utilization in this
volume helps to fill this gap. Fuglie examines which commodities are
currently most competitive in providing the least-cost source of raw
materials for starch industries and for animal feed in East and
Southeast Asia. For starch,
cassava is currently the most competitive raw material in Southeast
Asia, but sweetpotato is economical in parts of China and for food
products requiring specific functional properties of starch found in
sweetpotato. New, high
starch-yielding varieties of sweetpotato just now becoming available
will improve sweetpotato’s competitiveness in regional starch markets.
For animal feed, sweetpotato is most competitive in mixed crop-livestock
systems where the high protein content of sweetpotato vines can be added
to animal feed along with the energy-rich roots.
Since protein is a major constraint to livestock productivity in
Asia, the potential of sweetpotato to supply protein for animal feed
rations needs further attention
Jusuf
reviews progress and achievements in sweetpotato breeding in Indonesia.
Of the fourteen new varieties released in Indonesia since 1982, seven
were released since 1998. Most
of the latest releases were the result of collaborative breeding between
the Indonesian national program and CIP.
The newest releases were especially selected for their high
productivity and potential for agro-processing (starch and flour,
especially). At least one large private company has already invested in a
new agro-enterprise making use of these new varieties as the source of
raw material for processing.
More investments of this kind will open up significant new
markets for sweetpotato farmers in Indonesia.
Constraints
to the diffusion of new varieties are an on-going concern.
So far, no formal system has been established in Indonesia for
disseminating improved sweetpotato varieties to farmers.
In order to better understand farmers’ choice and sources of
sweetpotato planting material, Saleh, Jayasinghe and Rahayuningsih
report the results of a farm survey in East Java on sweetpotato seed
flows. Farmers obtain most
of their planting material locally, with very little exchange of
planting materials between districts.
One reason is the site-specificity of preferred varieties, with
different varieties dominating in each different locality.
Besides
new high-yielding varieties, another approach to increasing sweetpotato
productivity is to improve crop management practices.
Through better fertilization, plant spacing, hilling up,
post-harvest handling, etc., farmers can increase crop yield and reduce
production costs. Van de
Fliert et al. report on an
evaluation of the impact of sweetpotato Farmer Field Schools carried out
in several locations in Java. The Farmer Field School method is an
intensive, season-long field learning activity through which farmers can
improve their crop management and decision-making capacities.
Survey results indicate that Farmer Field Schools significantly
improved the profitability of growing sweetpotatoes among participating
farmers.
Even
as we emphasize transforming sweetpotato from a food crop to an
industrial and feed crop, it is important not for forget that
sweetpotato is still and will continue to be a staple food for
Indonesia’s eastern citizens, especially those in Papua Province.
This is the least developed of Indonesia’s provinces, and there
has been little prior work in trying to improve the subsistence
sweetpotato production systems found here.
In 2001, CIP together with Indonesian partner institutions
embarked on a three-year project with support from the Australian Center
for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) to develop improvements
to the sweetpotato and pig production systems in the highlands of Papua.
Peters describes the objectives of this project and the work carried out
to date. This is a
challenging project, not only to do the isolation of the project site
but also due to the continued political instability in this part of
Indonesia. Nevertheless, it is an important project, and CIP and our
Indonesian partners are committed to try to bring improvements through
agricultural research to the lives of the people residing here.
References
Chujoy,
Enrique (ed.). 1998. Potato Research in Indonesia: Research Results in a
Series of Working Papers 1998. International Potato Center and Research
Institute for Vegetables, Indonesia. 81 p.
Chujoy,
Enrique (ed.). 1999. Potato Resaerch in Indonesia: Research Results in a
Series of Working Papers 1999. International Potato Center and Research
Institute for Vegetables, Indonesia.
112 p.
Fuglie,
Keith O. (ed.). 2001. Performance and Prospects of Hybrid True Potato
Seed in South and Southeast Asia.
Proceedings of the CIP-ADB Symposium on “Field-Testing
Hybrid TPS in the Lowland Tropics of Asia,” held at Bogor, Indonesia,
September 13-14, 2000. Bogor,
Indonesia: CIP-ESEAP, 250 p.
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