Characterization of Land Biophysical for Building Land Suitabilty for Cashew (Anacardium Occidentale L.)

Abstract

Cashew is one of the prospective comodities. The agribusiness of it contributes to absorb labors, rehabilitate critical land and increase total export of agriculture commodities. However, there are many problems in developing this commodity. The main problem is its low productivity. One of the reasons is the use of unsuitable land for their growth. The available land suitability criteria for this comodity is still common criteria that based on data compilation and emphirical experiences. The objectives of the research were to reveal the most important land characteristic determining cashew growth and productivity, to build interaction model between biophysical charactheristic and productivity, and to propose the new land suitability criteria for cashew based on their productivity. The data of biophysical characteristics and productivity parameters were collected from four provinces and eleven districts. Boundary line method was used to develop the correlation model between cashew productivity and biophysical parameters. The equation models correlating biophysical charactheristic and productivity were developed using multivariate analyses. The results showed that there were six index factors affecting cashew growth and productivity significantly. They were built by elevent important land characteristics. The index factors consisted of soil particles, organic matter, water availability, terrain condition, soil alkalinity and nutrient retention. Based on their productivity values, the new land suitability criteria was developed. It was developed from 6 land qualities and 15 land characteristics. According to the productivity, the limit of cashew product between highly suitable (S1) and moderately suitable (S2) was 72,19 kg tree-1 year-1, the limit between S2 and marginally suitable (S3) was 54,15 kg tree-1 year-1, and the limit between S3 and not suitable (N) was 21,30 kg tree-1 year-1. The validity test of the new criteria showed that 80% of land evaluation results had close corelation with the expected productivity.