Land suitability for agricultural development in Jayapura Regency, Papua

Abstract

Agricultural development planning requires site-specific land resource data to assess the crop-land suitability. This study aimed to assess land suitability for agricultural development in Jayapura Regency, Papua. This research was conducted to make land resources inventory and evaluation for agricultural development in 1,324,422 ha in 2015. This research used tabular and spatial analyses to evaluate crop-land suitability. Satellite imageries-based land resources data were spatially overlaid to generate land units (polygons) as bases for crop-land suitability assessment. Results showed that there are about 656,826 ha suitable for agricultural development. Land suitability evaluation for food crops showed 271,278 ha suitable for lowland paddy, 402,146 ha for maize, and 329,966 ha for soybean. Furthermore, land evaluation for perennial crops showed 656,826 ha suitable for cacao and 514,410 ha for oil palm. This land evaluation could be considered as a valuable information for agricultural development planning in Papua to support sustainable production.