TARO PRODUCTION, CONSTRAINTS AND FUTURE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM IN INDONESIA

Transcription

1 TARO PRODUCTION, CONSTRAINTS AND FUTURE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM IN INDONESIA By T.K. Prana, Made Sri Prana, and T. Kuswara (Research Centre for Biotechnology LIPI, Cibinong/Bogor, Indonesia) Abstract : TANSAO short for Taro Network for South East Asia and Oceania is a joint project on taro involving 2 European countries (France and Netherlands), 5 Asian countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, and Vietnam), and two South Pacific countries (Vanuatu and PNG) launched in 1998 for the period of 3 years. Through the project, various studies were conducted and interesting results were obtained. A total of over 700 samples were collected from various parts of the country, representing 181 zymotypes. Lots of morphological and physiological variations were observed among the samples and some promising cultivars/clones were identified too. The project has also managed to initiate coordination among institutions dealing with taro in the country which would be quite useful for strengthening collaborative effort in the future. As taro is not very much used as staple food in Indonesia (except in West Papua/Irian Jaya and the Mentawai Islands) a different strategy should be set up in working out research and development plan for the future. This, among others, includes product development., breeding and selection of cultivars suitable for the various types of product, and promotion of taro-based products. Key words : TANSAO Indonesia, taro, zymotypes, cultivars, product development. 1

2 INTRODUCTION Taro, undoubtedly, once was an important staple food in Indonesia, but its role has been decreasing with the successful introduction of new crops like rice, maize, cassava and sweet potato. In few places, such as Irian Jaya or Papua, Mentawai Islands (West Sumatera), Sangihe Talaud (North Sulawesi) and at least in one place in East Jawa (Cemoro Sewu), however, the local people still consume taro asides from the above mentioned staple foods. Its role however has been gradually replaced by rice. This process is still going on at even an increasing speed, for some reasons. Firstly the local people concerned (Papua, Mentawai etc.) regards rice as not only better but more prestigious staple food to consume (wealthy people eat rice). Secondly, so far, the government has not been giving so much attention on taro research and development despite the fact that food diversification has always been part of the national programme. Thirdly in cases of natural disasters or food scarcity in the non rice eating areas, for a very simple classical reason that rice stock is always available and relatively (compare to root crops) more handy to transfer, the rescue team (the government) would drop rice instead of the local staple foods. What is left now actually are remnants of populations of both wild and cultivated types. Even these still display a wide range of genetic variability which should be explored, rescued, conserved, and utilized to revive taro cultivation in the country should food diversification is regarded as really important for the survival of the nation as well as the country. Though it does not means that taro uses should be limited to staple food. That was actually all the reasons behind the eager participation of Indonesia, in this case the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), in the TANSAO (Taro Network for South East Asia and Oceania) project launched in 1998 to During the past 5 years LIPI, in collaboration with a few other institutions like Bogor Agriculture University, agriculture services, the Research Division for Root Crops and Beans in Malang- East Jawa, and the Winaya Mukti University (West Jawa), has made a lot of achievements in implementing taro research and development programme in the country. All those results could be utilized for future research and development programme. 2

3 It is therefore considered quite timely now to carefully plan future on taro, to revive its role as an important crop commodity through systematic research and development programme. In doing so, various aspects should be taken into consideration. In this paper four major aspects will be discussed, namely the present status of knowledge on taro, constraints, final objective, and future R & D programme. The scope of discussion will be largely focused to Jawa and Bali islands where taro has lost its role as staple food but there is a great opportunity to develop it in food industry. PRESENT CONDITION Despite of its long history of cultivation, taro has not been regarded as an important crop commodity in Indonesia, it ranks number 6 after rice, maize, cassava, sweet potato and even potato. It is therefore not surprising if there has been hardly any budget allocated by the government for research and development of taro, except for once i.e. during the severe crisis ( ). It is sad to notice that the exotic root crop, potato, has had a better position than taro, despite the fact that it is generally regarded as a vegetable rather than staple food. Productivity of the crop in most places is low, in the Mentawai island it was reported as low as 2.5 ton/ha (Jusuf et.al, 1996) and in Irian Jaya (Papua) ton/ha as cited by Prana and Kuswara (2001). In Jawa and Bali a higher productivity could be expected. In most places, except in the taro producing centers, taro is grown on ridges of the rice fileds, along the irrigation canal, or in a mixed cropping system together with cassava, maize, sweet potato etc. or in between perennial crops like banana, mangoes, rambutan etc. in the home or orchard gardens. During the severe food crisis (1998/1999) taro was planted almost every where, such as in office yards, bare lands, or even along the sides of highways. Inputs (tillage, manure/fertilizer, pesticides application) has been usually minimum, since taro indeed is quite easily to grow. The number of plants planted in a particular area (land ownership) are usually not so many too, ranging from a few (less than 10) to tens of individual plants. The variety grown could be a mixture of local cultivars, indicating that most of them do not bother about the planting materials. Consequently, productivity is also low. However it is this type of agricultural practices that has save taro from a much more serious genetic erosion. 3

4 In the taro growing areas in Jawa, such as in Bogor and Sumedang (West Jawa), and Malang (East Jawa), the situation is completely different. There, taro is mostly grown in a mono culture system with better tillage and higher input (manure/fertilizer, and pesticide application), and intensive maintenance. The cultivars grown are highly selected, based on demand of the markets and superiority in certain characteristics, like resistance to diseases and pests etc. The popular variety in Malang for example is Boring, in Bogor it is Bentul, and in Sumedang is Semir. In term of both quality and productivity of the cultivars are comparatively much higher. In the highly intensive cultivation practices, taro is grown in holes (60 x 60 x 60 cm) with heavy manure application, and kept in the ground for 8-9 months before harvesting. The yield may reach 3-4 kgs per individual corm. Corms of this class usually are sold in supermarkets for the well-of customers. Presently taro production seems to have reached its peak. The (local) markets have been more or less saturated. Interestingly to note that in Bogor area (West Java) the price of taro corms, at farmer s level, remain the same through out the year, irrespective of the seasons, either during the peak production season ( March June) or during low production season (November February) as reported by Kuswara and Prana (2003). This suggested the people in the area might not so much dependent on the crop. The fact that taro based industry is hardly in existence in the area might also contribute to the special phenomena. Taro in the (local) markets are mostly sold as fresh corms, and to a limited extent tender shoots of taro are also sold as vegetable. No export of fresh corms have been recorded so far. In such a condition obviously the market is very much limited i.e. only locally (district level), not even to a provincial level.. 4

5 PRODUCTION CONSTRAINTS The main factors that have caused production constraint so far are maturity (time to harvest) and pest/diseases problems. Most of the superior cultivars known in Jawa are late maturing, which require at least 7 months before they can be harvested. This make them not quite suitable for areas with 6 7 dry months, with rainfall less than 100 mm per month, which are to be found in the southern, central and eastern parts of the island or even the southeastern parts of Indonesia in general. This is due to the fact that taro, at least the Indonesian cultivars, is not tolerant to draught (Prana and Kuswara, 2001). Certainly, theoretically it could be overcome with proper irrigation, but in such a case it has to compete with other crops like rise and maize. Therefore taro mainly occupies areas with longer wet months (7 months or more) or where it has good price in the local markets so that it can successfully compete. There are some pests and disease that frequently attack taro, namely worm and grasshoppers RESEARCH ACHIEVEMENTS Research and development activities have been largely dependent on external funding, such as from the IFS, EC, CIRAD etc. As a consequence there is no continuity of the programme. Taro project were up and down depending on availability of fund from external sponsors. Almost every time the project has to start from the base line i.e. begins with exploration and end up usually with evaluation, a point where scientists begin to understand the potency of the crop. No chance to develop it further since the project has come to an end, whilst financial support from other sources are also not available. That story goes over and over again. The sad thing is that the germplasms collection is eventually lost too because there is no budget for maintenance. The last project on taro was that done in collaboration with countries in Europe (France, the Netherlands), South East Asia (Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam), and the Pacific (Vanuatu), known as TANSAO project, entitled : Taro: Exploration and Evaluation for Rainfed Farming Systems, funded by the European Commission. The 5

6 project have been successfully implemented, but then again it had to be terminated since the proposal submitted for a possible extension of the project for the second phase (development) failed to get funding support. Through the project, Indonesia was able to collect 181 zymotypes, and identified quite a number of interesting genotypes having potential agronomic characteristics that can be utilized and develop further through cultivar improvement programme. Some tissue cultured materials of superior cultivars were also obtained from the member countries (in S.E.Asia and the Pacific) and are maintained in Bogor. All samples have been characterized. CIRAD has studied the zymotipic profiles of the bacteria causing TLB as well analyzing the physico-chemical characteristics of the starch (Lebot et.al., 2000). Some potential hybrids have been identified and propagated. A multi location trials are being carried out in 18 places through out Jawa with the objective to select cultivars that eventually could be released to the local farmers (in Jawa) next year. At present LIPI FUTURE RPOGRAMME Realizing the limited available resources, the future programme would be focused on : 1. Product design/development towards product diversification, improved packaging and expand marketing. This will be done through collaboration with other research institutions, NGOs, and other relevant organizations (Women Organizations) and services (agriculture, industry, trade etc.). Through concerted efforts progress could be achieved much more efficiently. Nowadays many organizations, including NGOs, who are very much interested in activities that would have direct impact on poverty alleviation at the grass root level. With the decentralization programme recently introduced by the government it should be possible to encourage the local government to pay special attention on such a programme concerning with food diversification and improvement of social welfare. 6

7 2. Breeding to develop new/superior cultivars in term of productivity and product quality requiring lower inputs etc. To certain extent this may be achieved by simple selection of the existing local cultivars yet to be collected. Collaboration in this case should be done with other research institutions in the field of agriculture, not exceptionally universities. The research centers under the Ministry of Agriculture have expertise as well as facilities in all the provinces that can be utilized for the implementation of field trials. Meanwhile the universities have lots of highly dedicated students that could be utilized to do the observations. 3. Expand marketing to both domestic and regional/international markets. This is possible since some industries are beginning to get interested in developing taro based industry. Those are certainly too a big task to be done solely by LIPI or by any other institution. It need a concerted effort involving not only Research and Development Institutions. 7

8 REFERENCES : Jusuf, M.A. Basyir, Marzempi, and Jonharnas Status of taro genetic resources in West Sumatera and research accmplishment. Paper presented in the 13 Taro Symposium, Manokwari, Irian Jaya, Indonesia 17 pp. Kuswara, T. and M.S. Prana Trade pattern of taro (C.esculenta) in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia. Un published report, 7 pp. Lebot, V., N.S.Hartati, N.T.Hue, N.V.Viet, N.H.Nghia, T.Okpul, J.Pardales, M.S.Prana, T.K. Prana, N.Tongjiem, C.M. Krieke, H.Van Eck, T.C.Yap, and A.Ivancic. genetic Variation Taro (Colocasia esculenta) in South East Asia and Oceania. Paper presented in the Symposium of the International Society of Root and Tuber Crops, Tsukuba, Japan, September 11-16, 2000, 15 pp. Prana, M.S. and T. Kuswara. The cultivation of taro : diversification to support national food security programme. 8