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.

This value is the average of 17,000 ha (minimum) and 39,000 ha (maximum), as calculated by the two assumptions in our approach. The average area increases to approximately 46,000 hectares if land is included with a median elevation between 1200 and 1400 masl (Table 1).

This is the average of 26,000 hectares (minimum) and 65,000 hectares (maximum) in our approach. The potentially suitable cropland for seed potato production is very limited (Fig. 1) and concentrated in in certain highland pockets (Fig. 2).

Figure 1: Current cropland area (in hectare per pixel; one pixel measures approx. 85 ha) suitable for seed potato production. Suitable if: Elevation > 1200 m and slope < 2%.
Figure 1: Current cropland area (in hectare per pixel; one pixel measures approx. 85 ha) suitable for seed potato production. Suitable if: Elevation > 1200 m and slope < 2%.
Figure 2: Current cropland area (in hectare per pixel; one pixel measures approx. 85 ha) suitable for seed potato production near Bandung. Suitable if: Elevation > 1200 m and slope < 2%.
Figure 2: Current cropland area (in hectare per pixel; one pixel measures approx. 85 ha) suitable for seed potato production near Bandung. Suitable if: Elevation > 1200 m and slope < 2%.

Underlying maps that were used as input to our approach and the suitability map (elevation > 1200 masl) for entire Indonesia can be viewed:

The following maps show more detailed information of selected areas that are potentially suitable for seed potato production in Indonesia:

The distribution of the potentially suitable areas among the provinces of Indonesia is given in Table 1 for both elevation criteria. Values show the dominance of Papua and Sumatera Utara that together contain circa 80% of the estimated suitable area for seed potato, whereas only 16% of total cropland is located in these two provinces. The areas potentially suitable for seed potato production are very small compared to the cropland acreage in Indonesia, only 0.08% (>1400 masl) and 0.13% (>1200 masl).

Table 1: Potentially suitable areas (ha) for seed potato production in the provinces of Indonesia. The second column refers to cropland area in Indonesia in 2005 (Fritz et al., 2015), the third and fourth column give the cropland area (with slopes <2%) suitable for seed potatoes at elevations of >1200 masl and >1400 masl, respectively.

Table 1: Potentially suitable areas (ha) for seed potato production in the provinces of Indonesia. The second column refers to cropland area in Indonesia in 2005 (Fritz et al., 2015), the third and fourth column give the cropland area (with slopes <2%) suitable for seed potatoes at elevations of >1200 masl and >1400 masl, respectively.

The distribution of the potentially suitable areas with increasing elevation is shown in Figure 3. Almost 95% of the total area is found below an elevation of 2000 masl and between 1200 and 1400 masl circa 18,000 hectares, which equals nearly 40% of the total area of 46,000 ha above 1200 masl.

Figure 3: Distribution of potentially suitable area for the production of seed potato with elevation (masl).
Figure 3: Distribution of potentially suitable area for the production of seed potato with elevation (masl).

References

  • FAO/IIASA/ISRIC/ISSCAS/JRC, 2012. Harmonized World Soil Database (version 1.2). FAO, Rome, Italy and IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria.
  • Fritz, S., et al. (2015), Mapping global cropland and field size. Glob Change Biol, 21: 1980–1992.