Introduction of Garlic Cultivation Technology Packages in West Java, Indonesia

Abstract

Massive import of garlic products has caused a declining interest of Indonesian farmers to plant garlic due to losing competition in clove size and lower selling price. This has discouraged the farmers from applying the innovation of garlic farming technology that caused low garlic productivity in Indonesia (8.7 t/ha). The purpose of this research was to improve the technology package of garlic cultivation at the farmer level. The study was conducted from July to October 2021 in Cianjur Regency, West Java, Indonesia. The technology packages experimental design was randomized block design with nine replications. The technology packages tested were farmer's technology package, introduced technology package-1, and introduced technology package-2. The components of the technology package tested were cultivar, mulch types, number of cloves per hole, biofertilizer, biopesticide, and chemical fertilizers. The observed variables were plant growth, bulb yield, and input-output of farming. The results showed that the technology package introduction could increase the plant performance, namely the plant height, stem diameter, bulb fresh weight and bulb diameter. The highest R/C ratio was reached by the technology package introduction-1 (1.47). The introduced technology package-1 was more profitable than package-2 as indicated by the MBCR value of 12.46 and 8.83 respectively.