Papua swampland status: potential, challenges and opportunities for its development to support rice self-sufficiency achievement

Abstract Rice is the main commodity, and efforts are being made to increase rice production through the development of marginal land, including swampland management. The purpose of this paper is to describe the status of swampland in Papua, Indonesia, including the constraints, potentials and development opportunities to support the achievement of rice food self-sufficiency. The area of available potential swampland in Papua, Indonesia for lowland rice cultivation is 31 thousand ha which is located in the other land utilization area (APL) which includes in-land swampland, peatland and tidal swampland. The challenges in developing swampland in Papua include acidic soil with low fertility, limited agricultural infrastructure, weak understanding of technology by farmers, limited farmer capital, lack of support-commitment from institutions-various related parties, swampland has not been recorded and mapped properly, and changes in land status. Of the several alternative strategies for overcoming the various challenges to swampland development, the use of high-yield varieties is the most effective because it is inexpensive, easily available materials, easy to adop by users, and the benefits are directly obtained by farmers. Support from local governments remains essential, as they are the technical agencies that understand the issues on the ground and can support the primary strategy for swampland development.