Challenging the Development of Rice Protection Area at The Nusantara New Capital of Indonesia (IKN) Baba Barus(a,b), La Ode S. Iman(b), Wahyu Iskandar(a,b*), Reni K. Tejo(a)
a. Department of Soil Science and Land Resources, IPB
b. Centre for Regional System Analysis, Planning and Development, GITIIA Program, LRI PSEK IPB
*wahyuiskandar[at]apps.ipb.ac.id
Abstract
Developing food sources to meet at least 30 percent of the Ibu Kota Nusantara (IKN) population poses a real challenge. In the initial planning stage, approximately 14000 hectares of land were designated for paddy cultivation. However, competing land uses-including residential development, coal mining, and oil palm expansion-pose significant challenges to securing land for food production. To address this issue, this study assessed the potential areas that could be designated as protected paddy fields by employing geospatial methods. Specifically, the analysis integrated land suitability data for wet and dry paddy, LULC information, spatial planning, forest planning, and other supporting datasets. Moreover, a multi-criteria evaluation approach-incorporating scoring, weighting, and spatial selection-was applied to identify the most suitable areas.
The results indicate that several regions are suitable for designation as protected food crop areas, which can be classified into four clusters: Sepaku-1, Sepaku-2, Samboja, and Muara Jawa. These clusters differ both in terms of biophysical suitability and the socio-economic characteristics of farmers. The analysis revealed that the existing wet paddy area is 2375 ha, while the existing dry paddy area is 1308 ha. In contrast, the potential land available for wet paddy is 8290 ha, and for dry paddy is 13642 ha. Consequently, the overall potential paddy area is greater than initially projected- nevertheless, the expansion of wet paddy fields is not feasible. Based on the general patterns of paddy land conversion, Samboja and Muara Jawa are recommended as priority regions for paddy protection and development.
