Seed potatoes in Indonesia
One of the major constraints in potato production in Indonesia is the availability of low-cost, healthy seed. This is one of the reasons for farmers to use seed potatoes saved from the previous season or buy seed potatoes on the local market where the quality is not secured.
Many farmers select their seed tubers from the ware crop through negative selection, i.e. they select the smaller tubers that cannot be sold as ware potatoes. Diseases and pests are transferred from one generation to the next and accumulate in the vegetative material over time resulting in seed degeneration and ultimately, yield decline. Therefore, farmers need to renew periodically their seed stock from external clean sources.
The production of quality seed potatoes in Indonesia is limited because the disease and pest pressure is extremely high. To reduce the potential effects of virus transmission by aphids the production of seed potatoes takes place in the highlands of Indonesia, where land is scarce and difficult to cultivate because of the sloping terrain.
The research question was to identify suitable areas for seed potato production given local agro-ecological conditions.
Methodology
To identify suitable areas for seed potato production in Indonesia, we have selected several land use and terrain characteristics which define suitability conditions to produce seed potatoes.
Results
Total cropland area in Indonesia was approximately 36 Mha in 2005 (Fritz et al., 2015). Approximately 28,000 hectares cropland above 1400 masl are potentially suitable for seed potato production according to our approach.