Economics and agronomics of Atlantic. dry season 2014 in West Java

Transcription

1 vegimpact Report 36 March 2017 vegimpact Report 36 March 2017 Economics and agronomics of Atlantic and Economics Granola potato and agronomics production of in Atlantic the and dry Granola season 2014 potato in West production Java in the dry season 2014 in West Java Annette Pronk, Lubbert van den Brink, Nikardi Gunadi & Annette Pronk, Lubbert Uka van Komara den Brink, Nikardi Gunadi & Uka Komara

2 2 The vegimpact program promotes improved vegetable production and marketing for small farmers, thus contributing to food security and private sector development in Indonesia. The program builds on the results of previous joint Indonesian Dutch horticultural development cooperation projects and aligns with recent developments in the horticultural private sector and retail in Indonesia. The program activities ( ) include the Development of Product Market Combinations, Strengthening the Potato Sector, Development of permanent Vegetable Production Systems, Knowledge Transfer and Occupational Health. The vegimpact program is financed by the Government of the Netherlands Wageningen University & Research (WUR, The Netherlands): - Wageningen Plant Research, Lelystad - Wageningen Centre for Development Innovation, Wageningen - Wageningen Plant Research, Wageningen - Wageningen Economic Research, Den Haag Wageningen University & Research Contact person: Huib Hengsdijk, huib.hengsdijk@wur.nl Indonesian Vegetable Research Institute (IVEGRI, Indonesia) Contact person: Witono Adigoya, balitsa@balitsa.org Fresh Dynamics (Indonesia) Contact person: Marcel Stallen, info@freshdynamics.biz Website: Stichting Wageningen Research, Wageningen Plant Research, P.O. Box 16, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands; T +31 (0) ; Stichting Wageningen Research. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in an automated database, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, whether electronically, mechanically, through photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written consent of Stichting Wageningen Research. Stichting Wageningen Research is not liable for any adverse consequences resulting from the use of data from this publication.

3 3 Table of Contents 1. Introduction Materials and methods Farmer s fields in dry season of Data recording Weather characteristics Methods and definitions Results and discussion General data of recorded fields Seed potatoes and planting Fertiliser management Crop protection Labour Yield and financial yield Economic profit Discussion and conclusions Crop management and input use and costs Yield and financial yield Final remarks References... 47

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5 5 1. Introduction The vegimpact program, short for vegetable production and marketing with impact, aims to improve vegetable production and marketing of small farmers in Indonesia. VegIMPACT contributes to increased food security and private sector development in Indonesia and is financed by the Netherlands government. The program ( ) is carried out by Wageningen University and Research together with local partners and national and international companies in vegetable production and marketing. One of the Work Packages in vegimpact focusses at improving potato production in Indonesia. One of the activities in this Work Package involves the training of 40 farmers in Good Agricultural Practices in Pangalengan and Garut, two major potato growing areas in West Java. As part of the farmer trainings demo plots are designed in which different fertilisation strategies and late blight control strategies are tested and demonstrated. To better understand the performance of these farmers and to assess the impact of trainings an intensive registration of the management of the participating farmers takes place during different growing seasons, both in wet and dry seasons. This report presents the results of the registration of activities and inputs in 40 potato fields during the dry season of 2014 (April till September) in West Java. This is the third report concerning activity and input registration of potato fields in West Java. In the first report of De Putter et al. (2014), which describes the potato cultivation in dry season of 2013, general information is presented about potato production in West Java and background information on this multi season study. In the dry season of 2014 the same farmers were involved as in the dry season of 2013 described by De Putter et al. (2014) and the rainy season 2013/2014 described by Van den Brink et al. (2015b). Twenty fields were located in Garut and twenty fields in Pangalengan. In both regions the varieties Granola and Atlantic were grown. General information of the farmers in Garut and Pangalengan is given in De Putter et al. (2014). The objective of the multi season monitoring study is to gain better understanding of farmers current management of potato fields, associated production and resulting economic performance. Because the involved farmers receive intensive training during the growing season in Good Agricultural Practices, the activity and input registration is also targeted at analysing changes in farmers practices and performances.

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7 7 2. Materials and methods 2.1. Farmer s fields in dry season of 2014 The project started in the dry season of 2013 with 40 farmers: 20 farmers in Garut and 20 farmers in Pangalengan. In each region 10 farmers cultivated Atlantic and 10 farmers cultivated Granola. It was the intention that the same farmers participated during the project, to evaluate the effect of training on the cultivation practices. However in the rainy season of 2013/2014 and also in the dry season of 2014, several farmers in Pangalengan changed from Atlantic to Granola because of a shortage in Atlantic seed potatoes. Table 2.1 shows the number of farmers growing Atlantic and Granola in the different seasons. In the dry season of 2014 the number of farmers was reduced to 17. One of these 17 farmers was growing the variety Blis. Table 2.1 Number of farmers growing Atlantic and Granola in Garut and Pangalengan Garut Pangalengan Atlantic Granola Atlantic Granola Dry season Rainy season 2013/ Dry season 2014* * one Atlantic farmer in Garut was growing Blis in the dry season of 2014 Figure 2.1 Farmers gathering for a meeting in Pangalengan (left) and an overview of participating farmers in Garut Data recording Daily records were taken by the potato farmers in the dry season 2014 with plantings from April till September Farmers recorded their data in logbooks which were biweekly collected by vegimpact staff for processing. Farmers recorded the type of activity, quantity of used materials applied in the activity, unit costs of materials used, costs of materials, labour requirements for the activity expressed in hours per gender, i.e. male and female labour and costs of hired labour. Family labour costs were not recorded. For fertilisers, the amount, concentration and costs of N, P 2 O 5 and K 2 O were recorded. For pesticides, the name of active ingredient (a.i.), a.i. concentration, mode of action group classification and hazardous classification according to the World Health Organization (WHO) were recorded (Table 2.2) (World Health Organizatio 2015).

8 8 Table 2.2 Pesticide classification system of the World Health Organization (World Health Organizatio 2015) Class Ia Ib II III U NL Description Extremely hazardous highly hazardous moderate hazardous slightly hazardous unlikely to pose an acute hazard in normal use not listed (mostly related to new pesticides of which no or limited information is available) 2.3 Weather characteristics The rainfall and number of wet days during the study period are shown in Table 2.3. The period May till August is generally characterized as dry (dry season), but rainfall in 2014 was relatively high during the month of July in Garut. Table 2.3 Precipitation (mm) and number of days per month with rain (# days) in Garut and Pangalengan from April to December 2014 Garut Pangalengan Months Precipitation # days Precipitation # days April May June July August September October November December Methods and definitions The following remarks could be made about the applied methods and definitions: Information about the size of the fields is obtained from the farmers and from measurements with GPS. In the analyses only the GPS field sizes were used. Sometimes there was a large discrepancy between field size according of the farmers and the GPS measurements, ranging 26% to +43%. Growing period is defined as period between planting and harvesting. The prevailing market price for seed potatoes was used to estimate the true production costs of farmers who planted farm saved seed potatoes, which was 9,000 IDR/kg. Mineral contents of inorganic fertilisers were supplied by the farmers. Mineral contents of organic manure was based on manure analyses in the dry season of 2013: 1% N, 1,5% P 2 O 5 and 1% K 2 O (De Putter et al. 2014). Availability of nitrogen, phosphate and potassium from organic manure was estimated at 50% (Van den Brink et al. 2015a), 70% and 100% respectively. If contract labour was used in activities, only the total costs were registered and not the number of hours of either men or women.

9 9 Calculation of the financial yield was based on the potatoes produced in different quality classes and associated prices, provided by farmers. The financial yield included the financial yield of the potatoes used for farm saved seed, which were valued at 9,000 IDR/kg and sometimes for distribution among the workers/labours. This was the average regional market prices for on farm saved seed potatoes and of market prices for the fresh market.

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11 11 3. Results and discussion 3.1. General data of recorded fields Table 3.1 presents information about field sizes, planting dates and length of growing period. Field size On average, field size of all farmers was ca. 0.2 ha, which is smaller than in the rainy season 2013/2014 (ca. 0.3 ha, Van den Brink et al. 2015b). There are large differences between farmers in field size, ranging from 416 to 11,600 m 2. In Garut, Atlantic is grown on larger fields than Granola. However, there is only one Atlantic farmer with a field size larger than 0.5 ha whereas in Pangalengan, there are three Granola farmers with field sizes larger than 0.5 ha. Table 3.1 Average, minimum and maximum field size, planting date and length of growing period (days between planting and harvest) of Granola and Atlantic farmers in Garut and Pangalengan. Average Min Max Field size (m 2 ) Atlantic Garut 3, ,200 Pangalengan 1,635 1,320 1,950 all Atlantic farmers 3,270 Granola Garut 1, ,671 Pangalengan 2, ,600 all Granola farmers 2,052 All Atlantic and Granola farmers 2,322 Blis 8,591 Planting date Atlantic Garut 21/May/14 06/Apr/14 23/Jul/14 Pangalengan 28/Apr/14 23/Apr/14 03/May/14 all Atlantic farmers 15/May/14 Granola Garut 01/Jun/14 28/Apr/14 15/Jul/14 Pangalengan 03/Jun/14 25/Apr/14 20/Sep/14 all Granola farmers 03/Jun/14 All Atlantic and Granola farmers 29/May/14 Blis 01/Jul/14 Growing days Atlantic Garut Pangalengan all Atlantic farmers 99 Granola Garut Pangalengan all Granola farmers 99 All Atlantic and Granola farmers 99 Blis 92 Planting date On average, Atlantic fields were planted mid May. Planting dates of Atlantic ranged from 6 April to 23 July. All Atlantic fields were planted before the end of May, except one field in Garut. On average, Granola fields were planted in the beginning of June, approximately 14 days later than Atlantic. Planting dates of Granola ranged from 25 April to 20 September. Most Granola fields however, were planted before mid June. In Garut, two Granola fields were planted after mid June and in Pangalengan, four Granola fields were planted after mid June. The field planted on 20 September was actually considered a cultivation belonging to the rainy season.

12 12 Growing period On average, the number of growing days between Atlantic and Granola was similar, 99 days although there was more variation between the numbers of growing days in Granola than in Atlantic, in both regions. 3.2 Seed potatoes and planting Table 3.2 shows information on the generation and origin of the used seed potatoes. All Atlantic farmers planted bought seed potatoes, while 71% of the Granola farmers planted farm saved seed potatoes. The majority of Atlantic farmers in Garut (88%) planted purchased G4 imported and certificated seed potatoes. Granola farmers planted seed potatoes of different generations (G2 till G5). Table 3.2 Origin and generation of planted Granola and Atlantic seed potatoes in Garut and Pangalengan. Number % of fields of Purchased Farm saved farmers With certificate Without certificate Total G4 G5 G6 Total G2 G3 G4 G5 Total local G2 G3 G4 G5 Atlantic Garut Pangalengan Granola Garut Pangalengan Blis All Atlantic farmers All Granola farmers All Atlantic & Granola farmers Table 3.3 shows information on seed potato use, mean weight of planted tubers, planting density, seed prize and costs of seed potatoes. The average weight of the planted tubers is calculated by dividing the weight of the total planted seed per ha by the plant number per ha. Seed potato use On average farmers have planted 1.7 ton seed potatoes per ha, within a range of 0.8 to 3.1 ton/ha. With Granola, on average there is a small difference between Garut (1.5 ton/ha) and Pangalengan (1.8 ton/ha). In Garut, Atlantic farmers used more seed potatoes than Granola farmers (2.2 vs. 1.5 ton/ha). In Pangalengan, Atlantic farmers used low quantities, 1.2 ton/ha, but this is based on two farmers. Two Granola farmers and one Atlantic farmer planted less than 1,000 kg/ha, which is really low. Tuber weight On average farmers planted tubers with a mean weight of 42 grams, within a range of 19 till 74 grams. In Garut, Atlantic farmers planted bigger tubers than Granola farmers (52 vs. 35 gram). In Pangalengan, Atlantic farmers planted smaller tubers than Granola farmers (30 vs. 44 gram), but the average weight for Atlantic seeds is based on recordings of only two farmers.

13 13 Planting density The number of planted tubers per m 2 differed from 3.6 to 5.7 for Atlantic and from 3.6 to 5.6 for Granola. In contrast with the rainy season 2013/2014, there were no fields with less than 3.5 plants per m 2, which is considered to be low for high yields. Figure 3.1 left shows the relationship between yield and planting density. For both varieties in both regions there is no relation between yield and planting density Yield (ton/ha) Yield (ton/ha) Plant density (# of plants /m 2 ) Price of seed potatoes (IDR/kg) Figure 3.1 Atlantic Garut Granola Garut Atlantic Pangalengan Granola Pangalengan Atlantic Garut Granola Garut Atlantic Pangalengan Granola Pangalengan Relationship between plant density (left) and price of seed (right) and yield for Atlantic and Granola potato varieties in Garut and Pangalengan Seed price On average farmers planted seed potatoes with a price of 13,044 IDR/kg. All Atlantic farmers planted seed potatoes with a price of 12,500 IDR/kg. For Granola, seed prices ranged from 9,000 to 20,000 IDR/kg. Price differences were mainly a result of differences in the generation of planting material: Granola G2 seed potato price ranged from 15,000 to 20,000 IDR/kg, G3 from 10,000 to 17,500 IDR/kg, G4 from 10,000 to 15,000 IDR/kg and G5 from 9,000 to 12,000 IDR/kg. There was one farmer who bought G6 for 12,500 IDR/kg. The prices of seed potatoes were in general lower in this season than in the rainy season 2013/2014. The majority of the Granola farmers (71%) planted farm saved seed. All farmers with farm saved seeds supplied a seed price based on market prices. There is no relationship found between the price of seed potatoes and yield, not for Atlantic or Granola (Figure 3.1 right).

14 14 Table 3.3 Average, minimum and maximum seed potato use, seed tuber weight, number of plants per m 2, seed price and costs of seed potatoes of Granola and Atlantic in Garut and Pangalengan. Average Min Max Seed potato use (kg/ha) Atlantic Garut 2,212 1,647 3,102 Pangalengan 1, ,579 all Atlantic farmers 1,970 Granola Garut 1, ,516 Pangalengan 1, ,445 all Granola farmers 1,681 All Atlantic and Granola farmers 1,745 Tuber weight (gram) Atlantic Garut Pangalengan all Atlantic farmers 46.3 Granola Garut Pangalengan all Granola farmers 40.5 All Atlantic and Granola farmers 41.8 # plants/m 2 Atlantic Garut Pangalengan all Atlantic farmers 4.3 Granola Garut Pangalengan all Granola farmers 4.2 All Atlantic and Granola farmers 4.2 Seed price (IDR/kg) Atlantic Garut 12,500 12,500 12,500 Pangalengan 12,500 12,500 12,500 all Atlantic farmers 12,500 Granola Garut 12,575 9,000 20,000 Pangalengan 13,389 10,000 16,000 all Granola farmers 13,098 All Atlantic and Granola farmers 12,965 Costs Seed potatoes Atlantic Garut (IDR*1,000,000/ha) Pangalengan all Atlantic farmers 24.6 Granola Garut Pangalengan all Granola farmers 22.1 All Atlantic and Granola farmers 22.7

15 Amount of seed Cost of seed Figure 3.2 Amount of seed potatoes (kg/ha) used and costs of seed potatoes (*10,000 IDR/ha) by Granola and Atlantic farmers in Garut and Pangalengan; AC = Atlantic Garut; BC = Blis Garut; AP = Atlantic Pangalengan; GC = Granola Garut; GP = Granola Pangalengan; BG = bought seed generation; BL = bought seed local; FSG = farm saved seed generation; FSL = farm saved seed local. Amounts and costs of seed potatoes per ha Figure 3.2 presents the amounts and costs of seed potatoes per farmer and the origin or generation of seeds and Table 3.3 presents average values for seed potato use, tuber weight, price and costs. On average, costs of seed potatoes were 22.7 million IDR/ha, which is 15% higher than in rainy season related to the higher amount of seed potatoes and the higher price of seed potatoes. On average, total production costs per ha in the rainy season of 2013/2014 were 64.6 million IDR/ha. So, costs of seed potatoes accounted 31% of the total production costs in the rainy season. However, also the seed potato costs varied greatly between farmers from 8.6 till 38.8 million IDR/ha. This variation is caused by different amounts of seed potatoes per ha and different seed prices related to the origin of the seed and generation number. In Figure 3.3 the relation between costs of seed potatoes and yield is presented. A strong correlation is found between costs of planted seed potatoes and yield for Atlantic in Pangalengan, r= 0.75 but none or a weak relationship is found for Granola in Pangalengan and Garut respectively.

16 Atlantic G: y = x R² = Yield (ton/ha) Granola P: y = x R² = Granola G: y = x R² = Costs of planted seed potatoes (IDR*1,000,000/ha) Atlantic Garut Atlantic Pangalengan Granola Garut Granola Pangalengan Figure 3.3 Relationship between costs of planted seed potatoes and yield Fertiliser management Table 3.4 gives information about the amounts and costs of fertilisation with organic manure and chemical fertilisers. Almost all farmers have applied manure, mainly chicken manure collected from chicken battery cage farms. The nutrient concentration in manure is not known and farmers do not account for nutrients applied with the manure products in their fertilisation strategy. In the dry season of 2013 four samples from the used chicken manure were taken and analysed (De Putter et al. 2014). The results of these analyses were used to estimate the nutrient application with the manure products. The concentrations were i.e. 1% N, 1.5% P 2 O 5 and 1% K 2 O. Not all nitrogen and phosphate from manure is immediately available for the crop. Based on literature and model calculations (Van den Brink et al. 2015a), it was estimated that in West Java the availability of N from chicken manure is approximately 50% and of phosphate 70%. The potassium applied with manure is 100% available. Amount of manure On average, farmers applied 21.6 tons manure per ha, but varied between farmers from 6.6 to 35.7 tons/ha. In Garut, one Granola farmer did not apply manure (GC02). Price of manure On average, the price of manure was 401 IDR/kg with a variation ranging from 200 to 600 IDR/kg. It is unknown what contributes to the variation in price, quality aspects such as nutrient

17 17 content or other factors. As in the rainy season of 2013/2014, prices of manure were higher in Garut (510 IDR/kg) than in Pangalengan (319 IDR/kg). Table 3.4 Use and costs of organic and inorganic fertilisers for Granola and Atlantic farmers in Garut and Pangalengan Average Min Max Manure (tons/ha) Atlantic Garut Pangalengan all Atlantic 20.8 Granola Garut Pangalengan all Granola 21.8 All Atlantic and Granola farmers 21.6 N chemical fertilisers Atlantic Garut (kg/ha) Pangalengan all Atlantic 245 Granola Garut Pangalengan all Granola 172 All Atlantic and Granola farmers 188 Total available N (kg/ha) Atlantic Garut (chemical + organic; Pangalengan Availability from organic source: 50%) all Atlantic 349 Granola Garut Pangalengan all Granola 281 All Atlantic and Granola farmers 296 P 2 O 5 chemical fertilisers Atlantic Garut (kg/ha) Pangalengan all Atlantic 298 Granola Garut Pangalengan all Granola 180 All Atlantic and Granola farmers 207 Total available P 2 O 5 (kg/ha) (chemical + organic; Availability from organic source: 70%) Atlantic Garut Pangalengan all Atlantic 517 Granola Garut Pangalengan all Granola 409 All Atlantic and Granola farmers 433 K 2 O chemical fertilisers Atlantic Garut (kg/ha) Pangalengan all Atlantic 193 Granola Garut Pangalengan all Granola 167 All Atlantic and Granola farmers 173 Total available K 2 O (kg/ha) Atlantic Garut (chemical + organic; Pangalengan Availability from organic source: 100%) all Atlantic 401 Granola Garut Pangalengan all Granola 385 All Atlantic and Granola farmers 389

18 18 Price of manure Atlantic Garut (IDR/kg) Pangalengan all Atlantic 493 Granola Garut Pangalengan all Granola 373 All Atlantic and Granola farmers 401 Costs of manure Atlantic Garut (IDR*1,000,000/ha) Pangalengan all Atlantic 10.3 Granola Garut Pangalengan all Granola 8.0 All Atlantic and Granola farmers 8.5 Costs of NPK fertilisers Atlantic Garut (IDR*1,000,000/ha) Pangalengan all Atlantic 5.5 Granola Garut Pangalengan all Granola 3.6 All Atlantic and Granola farmers 4.0 Total costs of fertilisers applied Atlantic Garut (manure, chemical NPK, Pangalengan foliar fertilisers and all Atlantic 16.4 other fertilisers) Granola Garut (IDR*1,000,000/ha) Pangalengan all Granola 11.9 All Atlantic and Granola farmers 12.9 Costs of manure On average, costs of fertilisation with manure were 8.5 million IDR/ha within a range of none to 18.2 million IDR/ha. On average, the share of manure in the total production costs was 10.3% and varied between 3.5 and 18.7%. Costs of manure applications in Garut were almost twice as high as in Pangalengan. Nitrogen fertilisation Mineral nitrogen fertiliser use mainly consisted of ZA (ammonium sulphate ) and Phonska (NPK ). Urea was only used by a few farmers. On average, farmers applied 188 kg N/ha with chemical fertilisers within a range of 58 to 579 kg N/ha. Atlantic farmers in Garut applied considerably more chemical N fertilisers than the other farmers. The total average amount of available N applied (from manure and chemical fertilisers) was 295 kg N/ha and varied from 122 to 747 kg N/ha. Figure 3.4 presents the amounts of available nitrogen, both from manure and chemical fertilisers. The figure illustrates that farmers do not account for the amount of available N applied with manure when applying chemical N fertilisers.

19 kg/ha N organic fertilisers (50% availability) N chemical fertilisers Figure 3.4 Available nitrogen from manure and chemical fertilisers (kg/ha) of Atlantic and Granola in Garut and Pangalengan (for legend see Figure 3.2) Based on information in literature and based on nitrogen fertilisation demonstration trials (Van den Brink et al. 2015a) it was estimated that yields hardly increased with applications of available N higher than 250 kg N/ha. In the dry season of % of the Atlantic fields and 57% of the Granola fields received more than 250 kg available N/ha. In the rainy season of 2013/ % of Atlantic fields and 62% of Granola fields received more than 250 kg available N/ha (Van den Brink et al. 2015b). In the dry season of 2013 this was 70 and 65%, respectively (De Putter et al. 2014). So, there are possibilities to reduce N fertilisation in potato production. Figure 3.5 presents the relationship between the amount of available N from organic and inorganic fertilisers and yield. A positive correlations between total available nitrogen and yield for the variety Granola in Pangalengan, r =0.25 was found but in Garut a slightly negative correlations was found, r = For Atlantic, no correlation between the total applied available nitrogen and yield was found. The highest tuber yield was not produced with the highest N fertilisation.

20 Granola P: y = x R² = Yield (ton/ha) 20 Altantic G: y = x R² = Granola G: y = x R² = Total available N (kg/ha) Atlantic Garut Atlantic Pangalengan Granola Garut Granola Pangalengan Figure 3.5 Relationship between total available nitrogen (from organic and chemical fertilisers) and yield for Atlantic and Granola in Garut and Pangalengan. Timing of nitrogen fertilisation Farmers applied chemical N fertilisers at one or two moments during the growing season: (1) a basal dressing at or just before planting and (2) a side dressing at 20 to 40 days after planting. In 47% of all fields the total chemical N application was applied as a basal dressing. In the remaining fields the total chemical N application was applied as a side dressing at two or more occasions. In the rainy season of 2013/2014 some farmers applied the chemical N application too long before planting (8% more than 3 weeks before planting). In the dry season 2014 this was not the case: no farmer was applying the chemical N application more than two weeks before planting. Phosphate fertilisation Mineral phosphate fertilisation was done mainly with SP (0 36 0) and Phonska (NPK ). On average, farmers applied 208 kg chemical P 2 O 5 /ha, within a range of 58 to 504 kg P 2 O 5 /ha. Farmers in Garut applied much more chemical phosphate fertilisers than farmers in Pangalengan, (i.e. 272 vs. 154 kg P 2 O 5 /ha). This agrees with results from the dry season of 2013 (De Putter et al. 2014). On average, the average amount of available P 2 O 5 was 434 kg P 2 O 5 /ha within a range of 193 to 781 kg P 2 O 5 /ha. Figure 3.6 presents the amounts of available P 2 O 5, both from manure and chemical fertilisers.

21 kg/ha P2O5 organic fertilisers (70% availability) P2O5 chemical fertilisers Figure 3.6 Available P 2 O 5 from manure and chemical fertilisers (kg/ha) of Atlantic and Granola in Garut and Pangalengan (for legend see Figure 3.2) It is not known why farmers in Garut applied much more phosphate than farmers in Pangalengan. In general, the amounts of P 2 O 5 applied are extremely high and far beyond annual crop P 2 O 5 uptake of approximately 55 kg/ha at a yield of 50 tons/ha. It is needed to find out to which extend soils in these regions are fixating phosphate. It seems that the very high amounts of P 2 O 5, above 500 kg/ha are not needed. Potassium fertilisation Mineral potassium fertilisation was done mainly with KCl (0 0 60) and Phonska (NPK ). On average, farmers applied 171 kg K 2 O/ha with chemical fertilisers, within a range of 47 to 349 kg K 2 O/ha. On average, the applied amount of available K 2 O from manure and chemical fertilisers was 386 kg K 2 O/ha and ranged from 92 to 698 kg K 2 O/ha. Figure 3.7 presents the amounts of available K 2 O, both from manure and chemical fertilisers.

22 Available K 2 O applied (kg/ha) Manure (100% available) Mineral Figure 3.7 Available K 2 O from manure and chemical fertilisers (kg/ha) of Atlantic and Granola in Garut and Pangalengan (for legend see Figure 3.2) Costs of chemical NPK fertilisation On average, total costs of chemical fertilisers containing nitrogen, phosphate and/or potassium were 4.0 million IDR/ha, but varied considerable between farmers, from 1.6 to 838 million IDR/ha. This means that the costs of chemical fertilisation are only 3.2% of the total production costs. Total fertiliser costs Figure 3.8 presents the total costs of fertilisation of individual farmers. The cost of manure was the most important factor, followed by the cost of chemical NPK fertilisation. Only a few farmers applied foliar fertilisers. Costs of foliar fertilisers and some other fertilisers were of minor importance, on average less than 0.4 million IDR/ha with a maximum of 5.3 million IDR/ha (GC06). Variation among farmers in costs of fertilisers was very large and ranged from 4.4 to 23.5 million IDR/ha with an average fertiliser cost of 12.9 million IDR/ha. The total costs of fertilisers applied were 10.3% of total production costs across farmers. On average, costs of fertilisers were higher in Garut than in Pangalengan.

23 * 1000 IDR/ha Costs of manure Costs NPK fertilizers Costs other fertilizers Figure 3.8 Costs of fertilisers for Atlantic and Granola in Garut and Pangalengan (for legend see Figure 3.2) 3.4. Crop protection The most important fungal disease in potato production in West Java is late blight (caused by Phytophthora infestans), especially in the rainy season. In the dry season, early blight (Alternaria solani) may cause more damage to the crop than late blight. The symptoms of the diseases differ although it is not clear if farmers act on these differences and just follow the tradition of applying late blight fungicides. Pesticides are applied to the potato crop by spraying with either a knap sack sprayer or a motor (power) sprayer. Spray volume Table 3.5 presents information about spray volumes per application, spray event. On average, farmers applied pesticides in 953 litre of water/ha per application. Granola farmers in Garut applied lower volumes, on average 642 l/ha per application. Between farmers, there is a large variation ranging from 395 to 2,284 l/ha. All farmers applied lower volumes in an early crop stage, on average 398 l/ha. Later on in the season, larger volumes are used. There are several farmers who applied very high volumes in the full grown crop, up to 2,404 l/ha per application. Recommended volumes range from 400 to 600 l/ha. Higher volumes increase the risk of run off of pesticides from the potato leaves. Also in the dry season of 2013 and in the rainy season 2013/2014, farmers applied pesticides with similar very high volumes of spray water (De Putter et al. 2014; Van den Brink et al. 2015b).

24 24 Table 3.5 Average, minimum and maximum spray volume per application used by Atlantic and Granola farmers in Garut and Pangalengan. Average Min Max Average of spray volume Atlantic Garut ,403 per application (l/ha) Pangalengan ,058 all Atlantic farmers 908 Granola Garut Pangalengan 1, ,284 all Granola farmers 967 All Atlantic and Granola farmers 953 Smallest spray volume Atlantic Garut per application (l/ha) Pangalengan all Atlantic farmers 326 Granola Garut Pangalengan ,035 all Granola farmers 419 All Atlantic and Granola farmers 398 Biggest spray volume Atlantic Garut 1, ,654 per application (l/ha) Pangalengan 1,209 1,136 1,282 all Atlantic farmers 1,192 Granola Garut ,208 Pangalengan 1, ,404 all Granola farmers 1,141 All Atlantic and Granola farmers 1,152 Number of fungicide applications On average, fungicides were sprayed 14.3 times per season (Table 3.6). In Granola fewer applications were registered than in Atlantic due to a later start of the first application and larger intervals between applications. Granola is somewhat less susceptible to late blight than Atlantic. The number of fungicide applications varied largely between farmers and ranged from 3 to 26 times per season. The farmer who sprayed 3 times had a low yield (GP06, Figure 3.15) and a short growing season of only 82 days between planting and harvesting. The earliest fungicide applications was 6 days after planting while the average time between planting and the first fungicide application was 20 days. It is estimated that plant emergence occurred between 14 and 21 days after planting. So, starting 20 days or more after planting may be too late to protect the emerging crop from the start. The application interval of fungicide applications used by farmers ranged from 2.9 to 10 days. On average, the application interval was longer than in the rainy season of 2013/2014 (4.7 vs. 4.0 days), which is to be expected as late blight pressure is in general lower in the dry season than in the rainy season. Figure 3.9 presents the number of days between planting and first fungicide application and the average fungicide application interval. Some farmers combined a late moment of the first application with a long interval, which means that protection against late blight was probably not sufficient.

25 25 Table 3.6 Number of fungicide and insecticide application, number of days between planting and fist spray with fungicides and the average spraying interval for fungicides and insecticides. Average Max Min Number of fungicide applications Atlantic Garut Pangalengan all Atlantic farmers 17.1 Granola Garut Pangalengan all Granola farmers 13.5 All Atlantic and Granola farmers 14.3 Number of insecticide applications Atlantic Garut Pangalengan all Atlantic farmers 7.0 Granola Garut Pangalengan all Granola farmers 6.0 All Atlantic and Granola farmers 6.2 Days between planting and first fungicide application Atlantic Garut Pangalengan all Atlantic farmers 16.4 Granola Garut Pangalengan all Granola farmers 20.8 All Atlantic and Granola farmers 19.8 Days between first and last fungicide application Atlantic Garut Pangalengan all Atlantic farmers 66 Granola Garut Pangalengan all Granola farmers 56 All Atlantic and Granola farmers 58 Days between last spray and harvest Atlantic Garut Pangalengan all Atlantic farmers 16 Granola Garut Pangalengan all Granola farmers 22 All Atlantic and Granola farmers 21.1 Interval between fungicide sprayings Atlantic Garut Pangalengan all Atlantic farmers 4.3 Granola Garut Pangalengan all Granola farmers 4.9 All Atlantic and Granola farmers 4.7 Interval between insecticide spraying Atlantic Garut Pangalengan all Atlantic farmers 12.9 Granola Garut Pangalengan all Granola farmers 15.0 All Atlantic and Granola farmers 14.5 On average the last fungicide application was done 21 days before harvest, within a range of 7 to 44 days. Gramoxone for haulm killing was used in Pangalengan by 5 Granola farmers and one Atlantic farmer. No Gramoxone for haulm killing was used in Garut.

26 days planting first application Interval fungicide application Figure 3.9 Number of days between planting and first application of fungicides and average fungicide application interval (for legend see Figure 3.2). Late blight control Concerning the effect on late blight, the applied fungicides can be categorized in the following groups: contact fungicides, local systemic fungicides and systemic fungicides. The applied contact fungicides have a preventive mode of action. They need to be sprayed on the foliage before spores reach the leaf surface. The fungicide layer on the leaf inhibits germination of the spore. Systemic fungicides have a curative effect. They can kill the fungal structures after penetration in the leaves. It is recommended to apply both a preventive as well as a curative active ingredient per spray either as an already formulated product combining those two or by making an own mix of a preventive and a curative active ingredient containing product. Used fungicides Table 3.7 presents the used fungicides by farmers, which hardly differed between Atlantic and Granola. Percentage of Atlantic farmers applying systemic fungicides was higher than percentage of Granola farmers (propamocarb, metalaxyl). Stickers Table 3.7 presents also the percentages of farmers applying stickers. Atlantic farmers used more stickers than Granola farmers.

27 27 Table 3.7 The use of fungicides and stickers amongst farmers (% of farmers) Number of farmer Percentage of farmers Atlantic Granola Atlantic Granola All farmers in: Garut Pangalengan Garut Pangalengan Garut Pangalengan All farmers Garut Pangalengan All farmers # farmers: Type of fungicide (late blight): contact Mancozeb Chlorothalonil Maneb Propineb Ametoctradin contact + local systemic Famoxadone local systemic Cymoxanil Dimethomorf Fluopikolide Mandipropamid systemic Propamocarb Metalaxyl controlling other diseases than late blight Azoxystrobine Difeconazole Propikonazole Tebuconazole Carbendazin Trifloxystrobine Stickers Garut Pangalengan Hazard risk of fungicides Four of the applied fungicides are classified by the WHO as moderately hazardous: cymoxanil, metalaxyl, difeconazole and tebuconazole. Cymoxanil was applied by 44% of the farmers in Garut and 40% of the farmers in Pangalengan. Difeconazole was applied by 13% of the farmers in Garut and 20% of the farmers in Pangalengan. Metalaxyl was applied by only a few farmers (6% in Garut and 5% in Pangalengan). Tebuconazole was applied in Pangalengan only (10% of the farmers). Table 3.8 presents the amounts and costs of fungicides. Figure 3.10 shows the costs of fungicides and stickers for each farmer.

28 28 Table 3.8 Average, minimum and maximum amounts and costs of fungicides and stickers. Average Min Max Contact fungicides, Atlantic Garut active ingredients (kg/ha) Pangalengan all Atlantic farmers 43.2 Granola Garut Pangalengan all Granola farmers 28.3 All Atlantic and Granola farmers 31.6 Systemic fungicides, active ingredients (kg/ha) Atlantic Garut Pangalengan all Atlantic farmers 1.3 Granola Garut Pangalengan all Granola farmers 1.3 All Atlantic and Granola farmers 1.5 Total costs fungicides Atlantic Garut (IDR*1,000,000/ha) Pangalengan all Atlantic farmers 6.8 Granola Garut Pangalengan all Granola farmers 5.4 All Atlantic and Granola farmers 5.7 Costs of stickers Atlantic Garut (IDR*1,000,000/ha) Pangalengan all Atlantic farmers 0.3 Granola Garut Pangalengan all Granola farmers 0.0 All Atlantic and Granola farmers 0.1 Contact fungicides On average farmers applied 31.6 kg active ingredients of contact fungicides per ha. This amount is 21% less than in the rainy season of 2013/2014. As in the rainy season of 2013/204, Atlantic farmers applied more contact fungicides than Granola farmers (43.2 vs kg/ha). This was found for both regions. Most farmers applied mancozeb and chlorothalonil. Only a restricted number of farmers applied maneb or propineb (Table 3.7). There are large differences between farmers in the use of contact fungicides, from 6.2 kg/ha up to 87.5 kg/ha in total during the whole growing period. The latter amount consisted of 64.5 kg mancozeb and 23.0 kg chlorothalonil and was applied in split applications at 23 moments, which means 3.8 kg a.i. per application. This is much more than the advised dose of mancozeb of 1.5 kg a.i. per application or chlorothalonil of 2 to 2.5 kg a.i. per application. Systemic fungicides On average, farmers applied 1.5 kg systemic fungicides per ha, within a range of 0.0 and 7.8 kg/ha. This amount is 40% lower than in the rainy season of 2013/2014. In Pangalengan, Atlantic farmers applied more systemic fungicides than in Garut. However, the number of Atlantic farmers in Pangalengan was only 2. Most frequently used (local) systemic fungicides were cymoxanil and dimethomorph (Table 3.7).

29 29 Costs of fungicides Figure 3.10 shows the costs of fungicides and stickers. There are large differences between farmers, ranging from 0.4 (GP06) to 13.6 (GP04) million IDR/ha. The total costs related to the use of fungicides were 0.3 to 10.8% of the total production costs. The vegimpact late blight demonstration trial conducted in Garut in the dry season showed that fungicide costs could be restricted to 5 million IDR/ha (Schepers et al. 2014). Costs for fungicides of 20 of the in total 37 participating farmers were below this target value Costs (million IDR/ha) Contact fungicides Systemic Fungicides Combined contact and systemic Other diseases than late blight Stickers Figure 3.10 Costs of fungicides and stickers of Atlantic and Granola farmers in Garut and Pangalengan (for legend see Figure 3.2) Table 3.9 presents the percentage of farmers applying a certain insecticide. Soil insecticides In Garut 6% of the farmers applied a soil insecticide. In Pangalengan 10% of the farmers used a soil insecticide. These percentages are much lower than in the rainy season of 2013/2014. In the project, there was no registration of the soil insect which was controlled. Insecticides applied to the crop Almost all farmers (92%) sprayed insecticides with an average frequency of 6.2 per season (Table 3.6). There are no clear differences between varieties and regions, but among farmers there are very large differences: one farmer did not spray insecticides, while other farmers

30 30 sprayed 17 times. Most farmers applied abamectin (63% of farmers in Garut and 55% of farmers in Pangalengan). In Pangalengan a relatively high percentage of farmers applied carbosulfan, profenofos, cypermethrin, while in Garut chlorantraniliprole, fipronil and imidacloprid were used by more farmers than in Pangalengan. In the project, there was no registration of the insect which had to be controlled. Hazard risks of insecticides There are two soil insecticides which are classified by the WHO as highly hazardous: cadusafos and carbofuran. In Garut, these insecticides were not applied. In Pangalengan, 5% of Granola farmers applied carbofuran and 5% applied cadusafos, equivalent to one farmer for each insecticide. Many moderately hazardous insecticides were applied: fipronil, metaldehyde, acephate, carbosulfan, chlorfenapyr, chlorpyrifos, cypermethrin, deltamethrin, dimetoate, imidacloprid, lambda cyhalothrin, permethrin and profenofos across varieties and regions. Figure 3.11 presents costs of insecticides for each farmer.

31 31 Table 3.9 Use of insecticides amongst farmers (% of farmers). Number of farmers Percentage of farmers Atlantic Granola Atlantic Granola All farmers in: Garut Pangalengan Garut Pangalengan Garut Pangalengan All farmers Garut Pangalengan # farmers: Applied to the soil: cadusafos carbofuran fipronil metaldehyde Applied after emergence: abamectin acephate acetamiprid carbosulfan chlorantraniliprole chlorfenapyr chlorfluazuron chlorpyrifos cypermethrin cyromazine deltamethrin diafentiuron dimehypo dimethoate fipronil imidacloprid kartap hydrochloride lambda cyhalothrin metamidophos pentamidophos permethrin profenofos thiamethoxam spiromesifen potassium phosphite carfentrazone ethyl beta cyfluthrin All farmers Garut Pangalengan Amounts and costs of insecticides Table 3.10 presents the amounts and costs of insecticides. Costs of insecticides use differ greatly from none to 5.7 million IDR/ha. On average insecticide costs are much lower than fungicide costs, i.e. 1.8 million IDR/ha versus 5.7 million IDR/ha (Table 3.8 vs. Table 3.10). The total costs related to the use of insecticides were 0.0 to 4.6% of the total production costs and 1.4% on average.

32 32 Table 3.10 Average, minimum and maximum use and costs of insecticides for Atlantic and Granola in Garut and Pangalengan. Average Min Max Total insecticide use Atlantic Garut active ingredients (kg/ha) Pangalengan all Atlantic farmers 2004 Granola Garut Pangalengan all Granola farmers 1566 All Atlantic and Granola farmers 1663 Total costs insecticides Atlantic Garut (IDR*1,000,000/ha) Pangalengan all Atlantic farmers 2.1 Granola Garut Pangalengan all Granola farmers 1.7 All Atlantic and Granola farmers Costs (million IDR/ha) Figure 3.11 Total costs of insecticides for Atlantic and Granola in Garut and Pangalengan (for legend see Figure 3.2) Labour Table 3.11 presents information about the labour input during the growing season. On average, the labour requirements per hectare were 3,424 hours (male + female) showing a very large variation ranging from 1,179 to 9,333 hours/ha. On average 43% of the total labour requirements was fulfilled by women with no clear differences between regions and varieties. However, also here was a large variation between individual farmers, ranging from 7 to 70%.

33 33 On average, labour costs were 12.7 million IDR/ha within a range of 3.3 to 43.2 million IDR/ha. The total costs related to the use of labour were 2.6 to 34.4% of the total production costs and 10.1% on average. Figure 3.12 shows some of the major labour activities in potato production. Figure 3.13 presents the male and female labour input per activity. Table 3.11 Labour hours per gender excluding piece wage paid labour (hours/ha). Average Min Max Total male hours Atlantic Garut Pangalengan all Atlantic farmers 1553 Granola Garut Pangalengan all Granola farmers 2026 All Atlantic and Granola farmers 1921 Female hours Atlantic Garut Pangalengan all Atlantic farmers 1412 Granola Garut Pangalengan all Granola farmers 1528 All Atlantic and Granola farmers 1503 Total hours Atlantic Garut Pangalengan all Atlantic farmers 2965 Granola Garut Pangalengan all Granola farmers 3554 All Atlantic and Granola farmers 3424 % female hours Atlantic Garut Pangalengan all Atlantic farmers 48 Granola Garut Pangalengan all Granola farmers 42 All Atlantic and Granola farmers 43 Total labour costs Atlantic Garut (IDR*1,000,000/ha) Pangalengan all Atlantic farmers 11.0 Granola Garut Pangalengan all Granola farmers 13.1 All Atlantic and Granola farmers 12.7

34 34 Figure 3.12 Soil cultivation (left), plant maintenance (middle) and harvest (right) are major components of labour hours/ha male female Figure 3.13 Male and female hours per ha (for legend see Figure 3.2). 3.6 Yield and financial yield Table 3.12 presents information about the potato yield. Farmers were selling their yield sometimes in different classes with different prices (Figure 3.14). Almost all farmers kept seeds for a next planting, only three farmers indicated to sell the total yield (Figure 3.15).

35 35 Figure 3.14 Harvesting (left) and weighing (right). Table 3.12 Average, minimum and maximum yield and financial yield (million IDR/ha) and prices of Granola and Atlantic potatoes (IDR/ha) in Garut and Pangalengan. Average Min Max Yield (ton/ha) Atlantic Garut Pangalengan all Atlantic farmers 20 Granola Garut Pangalengan all Granola farmers 16 All Atlantic and Granola farmers 17 Financial yield Atlantic Garut (IDR*1,000,000/ha) Pangalengan all Atlantic farmers 113 Granola Garut Pangalengan all Granola farmers 106 All Atlantic and Granola farmers 108 Price of harvested Atlantic Garut 5,829 5,439 6,467 potatoes Pangalengan 5,662 5,257 6,068 (IDR/kg) all Atlantic farmers 5,792 Granola Garut 6,544 8,565 4,659 Pangalengan 6,278 7,994 1,111 all Granola farmers 6,373 All Atlantic and Granola farmers 6,232

36 Yield (ton/ha) Yield (seed potatoes) Yield (sold potatoes) Figure 3.15 Yield (ton/ha) of Atlantic and Granola farmers in Garut and Pangalengan (for legend see Figure 3.2) For calculating the financial yield an assumed price of 9,000 IDR/kg for seed potatoes was used. Table 3.12 presents also information about the financial yield and potato prices received by farmers. Figure 3.16 presents financial yield of individual farmers. The average potato yield was 17.3 ton/ha across both locations and varieties. In Pangalengan, the average Granola yield was comparable to the yield of Atlantic (17.4 vs ton/ha). In contrast, in Garut the average Granola yield was lower than the yield of Atlantic (14.7 vs ton/ha). Variation in yields across farmers was very high ranging from a low of 7.4 tons/ha to a high of 34.3 tons/ha. The average income was 108 million IDR/ha. In Pangalengan, Granola farmers had higher incomes than Atlantic farmers (114 vs. 90 million IDR/ha) associated with the higher yields and the higher prices for Granola. In Garut, the opposite was found: Atlantic farmers had higher incomes than Granola farmers (120 vs. 93 million IDR/ha). The overall variation among farmers was large and ranging from 38 to 236 million IDR/ha, so a difference of more than a factor 6. This difference is much smaller than in the rainy season 2013/14 where the highest income was 12 times larger than the lowest income. Some farmers in Pangalengan had a very high financial yield which might be overestimated as those farmers kept a substantial amount of the potato yield as seed potatoes and for these seed potatoes a relatively high price was used.

37 Financial yield (million IDR/ha) Financial yield seed potatoes Financial yield sold potatoes Figure 3.16 Financial yield of Granola and Atlantic farmers in Garut and Pangalengan (for legend see Figure 3.2) 3.7 Economic profit Table 3.13 shows the average crop balance sheet for both varieties and locations. For one of the two Atlantic farmers in Pangalengan (AP04) a loss of42 million IDR/ha was calculated (Figure 3.18) resulting in a very low average profit. Profits for the other varieties in the regions were comparable and ranged from 35 to 49 mil IDR/ha. There was a large variation in costs and profits of all individual farmers (Figure 3.18). Four farmers made more costs than income, with a highest loss of 42 million IDR/ha. The majority of the farmers however, made a profit and several farmers realized profits of more than 200 million IDR/ha. Major contributing factors for these high profits were a high yields and a high prices for sold potatoes.

38 38 Table 3.13 Average crop balance sheet (million IDR/ha) of Atlantic and Granola in Garut and Pangalengan. Atlantic Granola Garut Pangalengan Garut Pangalengan # farmers Financial yield Costs Seed potatoes Fertilisers Fungicides (incl. stickers) Insecticides Labour Other costs Profit Figure 3.17 Other costs are gasoline costs for transport of manure to the field by motor bike (left), or motor bike with loading facilities (middle) or bamboo sticks to support potato plants (right) million IDR/ha Seed potatoes Fertilizers Fungicides (incl. stickers) Insecticides Labour Other costs Profit per ha Figure 3.18 Costs of seed potatoes, fertilisers, fungicides, insecticides and labour, other costs and profit (calculated as financial yield minus total costs. For legend see Figure 3.2)

39 39 Table 3.14 presents the total cost prices per kg potatoes produced. The cost price for 1 kg potato is approximately 4,000 IDR for Granola and somewhat higher for Atlantic with almost 6,000 IDR per kg. These cost prices are higher than those of the rainy season where Granola had a cost price of almost 3,500 IDR/kg and Atlantic of almost 5,000 IDR/kg (Van den Brink et al. 2015b). Compared to the dry season 2013, the cost prices were also slightly higher, except in Garut where the mean cost price had come down from almost 6,000 IDR/kg in 2013 to 4,500 IDR/kg in Table 3.14 Average, minimum and maximum cost price per kg potato produced of Granola and Atlantic variety in Garut and Pangalengan. Average Min Max Cost price Atlantic Garut 4,065 3,398 5,076 (IDR/kg) Pangalengan 5,955 3,111 8,798 all Atlantic 4,485 Granola Garut 4,036 5,942 2,461 Pangalengan 4,059 8,352 2,280 all Granola 4,051 All Atlantic & Granola farmers 4,156 The return on investment, calculated as the financial yield divided by total variable costs, shows that the potato production is in general a profitable investment. In one season the investment is paid back by on average 170% and sometimes 300% (Table 3.15). Table 3.15 Average, minimum and maximum values for the return on investment. Average Min Max Return on investment Atlantic Garut Pangalengan all Atlantic farmers 1.4 Granola Garut Pangalengan all Granola farmers 1.7 All Atlantic and Granola farmers 1.7

40 40

41 41 4. Discussion and conclusions Among farmers very large differences in management and inputs were found as a result of which also yields differ greatly. Costs of most inputs vary a factor 2 to 6 times among farmers. Since our four populations of farmers are relatively small outliers may affect average values strongly. It is important to study these outliers to better understand the performance of individual farmers and to identify possibilities for improvements for the wider population of farmers Crop management and input use and costs Seed potatoes In terms of production costs, the most important factor is the cost for seed potatoes, 33% of the production costs. The second factors are cost for labour and fertilisers, both 19%, and for fungicides, 9%. Large differences exist among farmers in the amount of planted seed potatoes, from 0.9 to 3.1 ton/ha for Atlantic and from 0.8 to 2.5 tons/ha for Granola (Table 3.3). Associated with the differences in the amounts of seed potato also the number of planted tubers per m 2 differed strongly, but not between varieties: from 3.6 to 5.7 for Atlantic and from 3.3 to 5.6 for Granola. In general, there is no clear relation between yield and plant density (Figure 3.1 left). With the large differences in the amount of planted seed potatoes also costs differ widely across farmers from 11.4 to 38.8 million IDR/ha for Atlantic and from 8.6 to 33.6 million IDR/ha for Granola. Also the costs for seed potatoes differed greatly from 9,000 to 20,000 IDR/kg which was, however, smaller than the variation in seed prices in the rainy season 2013/14 (range from 7,000 to 25,000 IDR/kg). Some of the farmers with low seed potato costs (lower than ca million IDR/ha) had very low yields. There is a correlation between high costs of seed and high yields, especially with the variety Atlantic (Figure 3.3). With Granola there is also a tendency that yield is increasing if the price of seed potatoes is higher but this correlation is weaker. In general, higher seed prices are paid for younger seed generations (G2 instead of G5), which contributes to higher costs for planted seed potatoes. This indicates that the quality of seed potatoes is an important factor. About 60% of Granola growers and 40% of Atlantic growers planted farm saved seed. Most of these farmers obtained low yields (lower than 15 tons/ha). Probably there are possibilities to improve this quality. Until now farmers are taking tubers from the harvested potato lot at harvest. Selection of healthy plant during the growing season and taking only tubers from these plants for seed potatoes will probably improve quality. Labour Total labour costs varied between 3.7 and 43.2 million IDR/ha among farmers. These differences are mainly due to differences in labour requirements for soil preparation, fertilisation, weed control and, for example relate to the use of plastic mulch, amount of organic fertilisers and the preceding crop. If a preceding crop is leaving more residues or weeds in the field more labour is needed for soil preparation. As no mechanisation is involved all handling is done manually and

42 42 on average more than 3,000 hours/ha are needed for potato production. As labour is the second largest cost factor (with fertilisers) and labour costs are expected to increase in the future, small mechanised tools may be introduced to reduce costs. Fertilisation Costs for fertilisation were the second largest cost component (equally large as labour costs) and varied between 4.4 and 23.5 million IDR/ha. The majority of the farmers (62%) applied in terms of weight more manure per ha they produced in terms of yield of potatoes. More than 50% of the farmers, with no differences between Granola and Atlantic, applied more than 20 tons manure per ha, which resulted in high labour costs and transport costs. Also manure is expensive compared to chemical fertilisers. Based on a nitrogen content of the manure of 1% and 50% availability for the potato crop farmers applied on average 108 kg N/ha with manure. This is additionally to the 188 kg N/ha applied with chemical fertilisers. The average amount of applied available N was almost 300 kg N/ha, with extreme rate of 590 kg N/ha. Figure 3.5 shows that there is no strong relation between yield and nitrogen input, only for Granola in Pangalengan a weak correlation is found between total available N and yield. For Garut, on the contrary, a slightly negative relationship is found between available N and yield for both Atlantic and Granola. High N rates are costly and are normally not resulting in higher yields. High nitrogen inputs stimulate vegetative growth and therefore may reduce potato yields as it delays in tuber initiation. The amount of nutrients contained in the manure and available for crop uptake should be taken into account when applying chemical N fertilisers. Within vegimpact experimental demo fields with different amounts of organic and chemical fertilisers were carried out to show the effects of lower N rates on potato yields. The first demo conducted in the dry season of 2014 indicated that nitrogen fertilisation could be reduced from 20 ton manure and 200 kg chemical N/ha (= average farmer s level) to 10 ton manure and 150 kg chemical N/ha without reducing the yield (Van den Brink et al. 2015). To provide practical fertiliser recommendations it will be needed to know the nutrient content in manure. Prices for manure in Garut were higher than in Pangalengan and it would be interesting to know whether there is a relationship between price and quality aspects such as nutrient content. The timing of the manure application is also important for estimating the available N for crop uptake. Related to the high use of manure, farmers apply very high amounts of phosphate ranging from 193 to 781 available P 2 O 5 /ha. Approximately one third of the farmers applied more than 500 kg available P 2 O 5 /ha as was also the case in the rainy season 2013/14. It is unknown why farmers use such high phosphate rates, but maybe it relates to phosphate fixing properties of the soils in Garut and Pangalengan. Also K 2 O applications were very high across farmers, 40% of farmers applied more than 400 available kg K 2 O/ha, while the minimum application rate was 92 and the maximum application rate was 698 kg K 2 O/ha.

43 43 Related to the high inputs of both organic and chemical fertilisers, average fertiliser costs were 12.9 million IDR/ha, within a range of 4.4 to 23.5 million IDR/ha. Considering the potentials to reduce nutrient inputs there are also good possibilities to reduce the production costs. Crop protection It is not clear what disease was the most important disease during the dry season But, costs for fungicides used are comparable to those of the rainy season , 5.7 vs. 7.5 million IDR/ha. Costs for fungicides in the dry season 2014 ranged from 0.4 to 13.6 million IDR/ha among farmers. Farmers used very high spraying volumes, ranging from 395 to 2,284 litre/ha in the full grown crop, while recommended volumes are 400 to 600 litre/ha (Figure 4.1). The high spray volume of fungicides applied was most probably associated with the power sprayer used for the sprayings. High volumes increase the risk of fungicide run off the leaves. The labour doing the spraying tended to spray the potato plants with high pressure in order to spray the underside leaves also. This causes a lot of spraying liquid to drop off from the leaf tips. The majority of the fungicides were to control late blight. Farmers follow the weather forecasts and weather conditions. The dry season 2014 was characterised as unusual wet with few dry periods and high humidity, which increases the risks for late blight infection (Table 2.). Therefore, farmers were tempted to protect their potatoes from late blight as this disease can destroy the entire crop in a few days and financial investments as well as profits are high. The high investments and profits make farmers rather insensitive to taking risks on delaying fungicides applications: there is too much at stake to justify the risks of losing the crop. Figure 4.1 A power sprayer (left), the use of a power sprayer (middle) and residues on the leaves (right) indicate run off as a result of too much spray volume applied at too high pressure Yield and financial yield Yields were around 17 tons/ha which is comparable to the yields of the dry season 2013 and rainy season However, where in yields of Atlantic were low in Garut, this season they were high compared to the yields of Granola. It seems that farmers in Garut have good skills to grow Atlantic, but have some difficulties with growing Granola. In Pangalengan, yields of Atlantic and Granola did not differ, although this only shows from two farm registrations. The financial yields in 2014 dry season were high in both regions and for both varieties. But,