Enhancing the adoption of improved cassava production and utilisation systems in Indonesia and East Timor

CIM/2003/066: Enhancing the adoption of improved cassava production and utilisation systems in Indonesia and East Timor

East Timor, Indonesia

International Center for Tropical Agriculture, Thailand

Dr Reinhardt Howeler
Phone: 66 2 5797551
Fax: 66 2 9405541
Email: ciat_bangkok@cgiar.org

• Brawijaya University, Indonesia
• Research Institute for Legumes and Tuber Crops, Indonesia
• Assessment Institute for Agricultural Technology (East Java), Indonesia
• Indonesian Center for Food Crops Research and Development, Indonesia
• Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, East Timor
• Center for Soil and Agroclimate Research, Indonesia
• National University of Timor, East Timor

$397,912

02/09/2004 - 01/09/2007

02/09/2007 - 31/03/2008

Dr Paul Fox

Cassava is an important crop both in Indonesia and East Timor. In Indonesia it is grown mainly for off-farm sale to processors. In the past decade, however, Indonesia has gone from a net cassava chip exporter to importer. East Timorese farmers grow cassava for on-farm and household use, boosting food availability when needed. In both countries cassava is the third most important crop, after rice and maize.

Another trait common to both countries is that cassava yields well below expectations. On-station testing in Indonesia of improved breeding lines have yielded up to 58t/ha on-station, compared to current varieties averaging around 14t/ha on-farm. Similarly in East Timor, yields of around 40t/ha have been achieved on-station, ten times above the average 4t/ha on-farm. Yields of up to 100t/ha, one of the highest for any region in the world, have been reported at one East Timorese experiment site.

Although originating in Latin America cassava is well suited to Asian growing conditions. It is drought tolerant and grows in poor soils, and is relatively disease and pest free. Despite this, low yields persist in Indonesia and East Timor. Delivering improved varieties, well suited to local growing conditions, directly to farmers is dependent on demonstrating improved yields are possible and achievable.

In East Timor a new cassava starch factory is scheduled to be built in 2006 along the south coast, possibly in Suai, with a daily capacity to produce 100 tonnes of starch. This requires at least 400 tonnes of fresh roots per day or 120,000 tonnes per year; three times East Timor's current production. This is the first major agro-industry in East Timor and is expected to change cassava's role from a minor food security crop to a major industrial and export crop, which can supply the country with foreign exchange, increase farmers' income, provide employment, and enhance rural development.

The overall goal of the project is to increase the productivity of cassava-based cropping systems through the widespread adoption of higher yielding cassava varieties of superior nutritional quality, and improved cultural practices that increase yields, while protecting the soil from erosion and nutrient depletion. The specific objectives of the project are:
to support national institutions in conducting strategic and applied research in cassava production and on-farm utilisation that will overcome important constraints identified at the farm level.
to develop, with farmers, new high-yielding cassava varieties of superior nutritional quality, improved crop management practices that increase yields and maintain the soil resource, and better utilisation through on-farm animal feeding of roots and leaves.
to disseminate new technologies at the local, provincial and national level using farmer participatory extension methodologies.
to strengthen inter-institutional collaboration and the capacity for farmer participatory research in national institutes and selected farm communities.

Conduct collaborative on-station or on-farm research on:
cassava varietal improvement
nutritional requirements
soil fertility maintenance or improvement
erosion control
intercropping systems
plant spacing
rapid multiplication techniques
on-farm animal feeding or processing
FPR trials conducted in 1-2 new and 2-3 existing sites every year in each country
Farmers' field days organized at time of harvest in each site
disseminate new technologies at the local, provincial and national level using farmer participatory extension
Pamphlet on characteristics of some local and improved varieties
Cassava production manual in Bahasa Indonesia and Tetum for extension purposes
FPR training course for researchers/extension personnel
FPR and cassava production training courses for local extension workers and key farmers

Outcomes for this project are currently being prepared