Soybean in Indonesia: Current Status, Challenges and Opportunities to Achieve Self-Sufficiency

Abstract

Soybean is the third important food crop in Indonesia after rice and maize, particularly as a good source of protein. The demand for soybean consumption tends to increase annually. In 2020, the figure was about 3.28 million tons, while the domestic production was 0.63 million tons, thus around 81% of the soybean needed was imported. Efforts to increase the domestic soybean production have been conducted since the last decade, which is concerned with increasing the current productivity (1.5 t/ha) through introducing the high-yielding improved varieties and extending the harvested area, particularly to outside of Java. The potential planting area is focused on the irrigated lowland after rice (optimal land) and suboptimal lands (dry, acid, tidal, and shaded lands). The series of the study showed that the yield potential of soybean grown in such lands varied from 1.8 t/ha to 3.0 t/ha. A number of soybeans improved varieties adapted to different land types or agro-ecological conditions also have been released and supported with advanced cultivation technology. The results, challenges, and opportunities to achieve soybean self-sufficiency are discussed in this paper.

The feasibility of large-seeded soybean cultivation

“…The demand of soybean in 2018 was 2.5 million tons, while soybean production in Indonesia was only 982,598 tons or 43 percent of the demand, and even only around 800,000 tons according to [2]. The Ministry of Agriculture noted that to meet domestic soybean demand, Indonesia imports an average of about 2.49 million tons per year [3]. The domestic soybean production needs to be continuously increased for reducing soybean import, both through intensification [4] and extensification on dry land, paddy field, and tidal land [5].…”

The Potential and Prospect of Tidal Swamp Lands for Sustainable Soybean Production

“…The soybean harvested area during this period (2016-2020), is estimated to decrease from 576 to 381 thousand ha and productivity increase from 1.49 t/ha to 1.65 t/ha [3]. To achieve self-sufficiency within the next four years (2021-2024), an additional harvested area of 1.3-1.5 million hectares per year and productivity of 1.7-1.8 t/ha is needed [4].…”

“…However, it seems that the target of developing planting areas is quite difficult to be achieved. Several problems were noted regarding such conditions, including (a) high competition of land use with other commodities, (b) low stability of the yield as soybean are highly susceptible to pest and diseases attacks, (c) efforts to extend the planting area has not been fully succeeded, (d) relatively low quality of seeds as the soybean seed industry has not been well developed, (e) less conducive of soybean trading system, (f) less intensive cultivation techniques, and (g) low profit of soybean farming relative to other crops [4].…”

Effect of pH on Different Manganese Media on Seed Viability of Seven Local Soybeans Varieties (Glycine max L. Merr)

“…Therefore, soybean development should find other potential sub-optimal lands in Indonesia, including dry acidic land accounting for 4.5 million ha. The acidic land is the least favorable for soybean production due to lower fertility, potential toxicity from soluble forms of microelements such as Al, Mn, and Fe [2]. Almost half of the world's non-irrigated arable lands are acidic, therefore, the toxicity of aluminum, and manganese is one of the most important growing limiting factors for crops production in acid soil [3].…”