The roles of hydro-climatology in upland farming development in Indonesia

The results of upland farming research and development for food, horticulture and plantation crops are discussed in this paper. The daily water balance in six upland farming: Wonosari (DIY), Soropadan dan Kretek (Central Java), Menggala (Lampung), Karang Joang (East Kalimantan) and Tobu (NTT) were analysed to evaluate growing period of crops in each location. The results indicate that most of the farmers have utilized agroclimate information, particularly for the main crops cultivation. While for the supplementary crops such as vegetable need to be improved to minimize risks of yield reduction. Development of plantation crop in upland areas such as sugarcane is very promising. When the hydro-climate resource is fully utilized, the low production of sugarcane in upland can be optimized. Water balance analysis is one of the tools to evaluate the growing period for optimization. Further inter-regional analysis will provide opportunity in distributing the production evenly to avoid glut that sharply reduce the crop prices. (Resume d'auteur)