SpiceUp-Geodata for sustainable pepper farming: case pepper field at Bangka Belitung, Lampung, West Kalimantan, and East Kalimantan, Indonesia

Pepper ( Piper nigrum L. ) is one of the potential agricultural commodities in Indonesia. In the past, Indonesia was the leading producer and exporter of black and white pepper in the world. However, in recent years, Indonesia has lost its leading position to Vietnam due to instability of price, climate change and pepper farmer’s lack of knowledge on Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), resulting in low productivity, plant diseases, and difficulties with water supply. In order to tackle those problems, eight public and private organizations (Verstegen, ICCO, N&S, AKVO, VanderSat, IPB, Balittro and PT. CAN) formed a multinational partnership project named SpiceUp funded by NSO. SpiceUp aims to implement a financially sustainable information service based on geodata and precision agriculture that supports 100, 000 Indonesia pepper farmers to increase their production, income, food security and reduce the inputs of water, fertilizer, and pesticides. As an initial phase, baseline surveys were conducted in four targeted areas to collect data about household characteristics, inputs and income of farmers and better understand farming practices. The baseline findings show that there is an urgent need for farmers to get access to: 1. Fertilizer advice; 2. Pest and disease advice; 3. Good Agricultural Practice; 4. Water management advice; 5. Sustainability tracing system. In conclusion, increasing farmers’ knowledge of pepper culture that corresponds with GAP and inviting farmers to be able to start using information technology and satellite data in their cultivation systems will be solutions in facing current challenges because the services offered depend on the real problems.