Cassava is the third most important food crop commodity after rice and corn. Not only domestically, Indonesian cassava commodities also play an important role in world cassava production. Asriani (2011) reported that Indonesia is the fourth largest cassava producer in the world after Nigeria, Brazil, and Thailand. The demand for cassava from year to year has increased, both for direct consumption and as raw material for various industries.
The role of cassava in the industrial sector will continue to increase in line with the government’s program to use alternative energy sources derived from agricultural products (liquid biofuel), such as biodiesel and bioethanol as well as diversification of local food-based foods. The government has launched bioethanol as a renewable alternative energy source in the form of Gasohol-10 (a premium blend with 10% ethanol), where 8% of ethanol needs come from cassava.
Indonesia’s large population (247 million people) with high growth (1.47% / year) and an increase in the need for fuel oil (BBM) by 7% / year which will further spur cassava demand encourages the government to continue to increase cassava production as an alternative food to support national food security (Sundari 2010). In 2014 cassava production was recorded at 23.44 million tons (BPS 2016a) with a harvest area of around 1 million ha (BPS 2016b), or an average productivity of around 23.35 tons / ha.
The productivity of cassava is still far from the potential yield of several superior varieties of cassava which can reach 40±50 tons / ha (Saleh 2012). The four largest cassava producing provinces in Indonesia are Lampung, Central Java, East Java, and West Java which account for around 76.37% of the total cassava production in Indonesia. In the context of agricultural development, Permentan No. 50 / Permentan / OT.140 / 8/2012 concerning Guidelines for the Development of Agricultural Areas emphasizes the importance of developing agricultural commodities based on the area.
The development of agricultural areas, among others, is designed to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of programs to increase agricultural commodity production. Effective in the sense that the implementation of area-based production improvement programs can significantly increase agricultural commodity production, while efficient means that the program can be implemented at a relatively small cost.
Through area-based development, it is hoped that the implementation of agricultural production improvement programs can be more focused and concentrated in certain areas so that coaching activities to farmers become easier, infrastructure development and supporting institutions can be better adjusted to the needs at the field level, and development linkages in the upstream sector and downstream sector can be created. Furthermore, the development of agricultural areas is expected to be able to contribute significantly to increasing national agricultural production and at the regional level.
Source : Analisis Kebijakan Pertanian, Vol. 14 No. 2, Desember 2016: 125-148