Tropical Climate: The Importance Of Agriculture In Indonesia

1. Introduction

Tropical climate is beneficial for agriculture since it provides enough sunlight throughout the year and sufficient rainfalls. As one of the developing countries in South-East Asia under the tropical environment, Indonesia still depends on agriculture as one of its national income sources. According to the Statistic of Indonesia from 2010-2014 (Badan Pusat Statistik, 2015), the agriculture sectors give around 13.38% contribution to the national Gross Domestic Product. These sectors are also beneficial for food resources, and for providing high quantities of job for the countries’ rural citizens, especially in the most populated island in Indonesia, Java. Agriculture activities in Java are crucial that indicated by the abundance agricultural fields.

Agricultural fields in Java are generally small in scale and unsystematic to fit the hilly topography condition. The intercropping systems following the seasonal pattern are also widely adapted by the Javanese farmers to increase yield and to obstruct the pest invasion. This system can be found in the upland fields where rice is cultivated with other subsidiary crops such as maize. The large and complex agricultural fields in Java require not only the statistical but also spatial analysis, in order to understand and monitor the agriculture condition. However, the spatial information for agriculture in Indonesia, in general, is lack of updating and is depending on time consuming field