Land evaluation of sweet potatoes with a parametric approach

Abstract

Sweet potato is a food commodity that has high economic value and is an alternative staple food because of its energy and nutrition content. This study was in the form of parametric approach by assigning weights to each of the characteristics of both land and climate required for sweet potato plant growth. Climate and land suitability analysis was performed using the square root method. The results of climate suitability analysis showed that there were two periods of sweet potato plant growth, namely in November-March (S2) and March-July (S3) with a limiting factor in relative humidity (RH) and the length of the sun’s irradiation (n/N) which could not be improved. Land suitability analysis in the November-March growing period showed that there are two land suitability classes namely S3 (land units 1,2, 5 and 6) and N (land units 3 and 4). The limiting factors were soil depth, organic carbon and climate (humidity and length of sun exposure). Organic carbon is improvable by adding cover crops, soil depth with a high level of management, while climate such as relative humidity and irradiation are not manageable.