Land Suitability Study for the Development of Rice Production in Moruku Village, Papua Pegunungan Province to Support Food Security
Untari (a*), Parjono (b)

a) Department of Agribusiness, Faculty of Agriculture, Musamus University, Merauke-South Papua
*untari[at]unmus.ac.id
b) Department of Agricultural Engineering, Musamus Faculty, Musamus University, Merauke-South Papua

Abstract

Yahukimo Regency is one of the regencies in Papua Island which has high food insecurity. Basically, the staple food of the local people, who are generally local people, are tubers. However, changing consumption patterns from tubers to rice makes it one of the challenges and problems for local governments to ensure the sustainability and safety of food ingredients because 99 percent of rice stocks come from outside the region with prices reaching IDR 60,000 per kg. The purpose of this study was to determine the chemical and physical quality of the soil in the area of food crop cultivation development, as well as engineering recommendations for the development of rice cultivation technology based on the results of soil quality analysis in the research area. The research was conducted in Moruku Village, Dekai District, Yahukimo Regency using a descriptive qualitative research approach using an experimental method. Analysis of the physical and chemical properties of the soil was carried out at the Bogor ICBB Laboratory. The results showed that the organic C content in the soil was included in the S1 class, meaning that it was suitable for rice cultivation. However, the acidity level and indications of copper (Cu), Iron (Fe), and Zinc (Zn) levels are very high. While the results of the analysis of nutrients available on the parameters Total N, P2O5 and K2O are all included in class S1, meaning that the available nutrients in the soil are suitable for the development of rice cultivation. For this reason, it is recommended that technological engineering be carried out, namely with a soil washing system on agricultural land, giving dolomite lime, using organic fertilizers, and choosing varieties that have a level of adaptation and tolerance to high acidity. The novelty in this study is that there are soil chemical and physical contents which can be further identified as an effort to find out the potential for new natural resources in the research area.

Keywords: food insecurity- rice- land suitability- soil quality

Topic: Agriculture Productivity