**1. Introduction**

Climate change is a major factor endangering sustainable food production. Various efforts have been made to prevent potential food shortages in future. Cassava and sago are not considered as main staple foods, and their production is not significantly influenced by climate. Access to adequate food is an important part of human rights, in addition to the rights of being free from hunger, obtaining safe drinking water, and accessing to any resources, including fuel. Food sovereignty is the right to sufficient food, which means that every people both individually and collectively in their community, must have access to food at all times physically and economically [1–3].

One of the agricultural commodities, which is a focus for development in Indonesia is cassava. Cassava has a variety of highly prospective and sustainable derivative products, both food and non-food. In general, cassava is processed into tapioca. Cassava starch can be further processed into modified cassava flour (mocaf) as an alternative to wheat flour and hydrolyzed starch can be further processed into glucose syrup and its derivatives. Meanwhile, for non-food purposes, cassava is utilized as raw material in cosmetics, bioethanol, chemicals, and textile industries. The benefits of cassava are divided into local staple foods, agricultural industrial products, and industrial raw materials, so cassava has the potential to be developed [4–6].

In Indonesia, cassava is also an important food crop commodity after rice, corn, soybean, peanut, and mung bean. Cassava is utilized for food, feed, bioethanol, and industrial raw materials. In terms of food utilization, cassava is not only for meeting the need of carbohydrates as a rice substitute but it is also developed for food diversification. In addition, cassava has wide adaptability, easy to store, and has good taste, so that by diversifying cassava products it is expected that it can create new business opportunities and increase farmers' income [7–9].

Regarding food security improvement, the Government of Indonesia through the Ministry of Agriculture continuously makes efforts in reducing rice consumption by looking for food substitutes, such as cassava. In several areas in Indonesia, cassava has been used as a food ingredient, such as in form of blocks, chips, and traditional sun dried-slice cassava or *gaplek,* which have longer shelf-life. However, cassava is still considered as an inferior commodity, so it is not in demand by community. Therefore, the strategy for increasing the community interest in cassava consumption begins with processing cassava into various products that have added value and high-selling value [10].

The potential and opportunities for cassava development are still widely open in line with the development of processed food products, livestock industry, and other industries, such as alcohol, sorbitol, fructose, and many others, and also be supported by research and innovation. Currently, the plastic industries start using tubers, including cassava, as their raw material for biodegradable plastics that are more environmentally friendly [11, 12].

Cassava as raw material for food has not been able to compete with rice or wheat flour. It can be seen from food business actors who use rice or wheat flour as raw materials more than the local ones, such as tapioca, mocaf, arrowroot flour, and so on. Businesses with local raw materials are not nonexistent, but they are few in number, and their products are not widely known by the community. In addition, there are still few business actors who specifically process local food products. Most of the existing industries are still labor intensive and not supported yet by good infrastructures, so their productivity is still low. In fact, local food ingredients are usually consumed in form of their derivative products, such as flour, which is further processed into noodles, cakes, and so on. This problem causes the distribution of local food products is not as wide as imported food products. The improvement in efficiency and effectiveness of local food postharvest and processing, both into intermediate and end-products that have added value should be carried out to succeed in food diversification.

## **2. Potentials and performances of cassava in Indonesia**

The performance of cassava production in Indonesia is continuously increasing since 2018 at 1.51%. The five provinces with the highest cassava production are *Prospects of Cassava Development in Indonesia in Supporting Global Food Availability in Future DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.106241*

#### **Figure 1.**

*The largest cassava-producing areas in Indonesia (Source: [13]).*

Lampung, Central Java, East Java, West Java, and East Nusa Tenggara (**Figure 1**). The domestic cassava productivity fluctuates where in the last five years the average production is 23.99 tons/ha [13].

The realization and prediction of cassava production in Indonesia are described in **Table 1**. At the farming level, cassava productivity is very low, only around 20–26 tons, and still far below the yield of the research result, which is an average of 40 tons/ha. The low productivity of cassava farming causes by conventional cultivation, which is still dependent on existing agro-climatic conditions, and the low mastery of farmers on cassava technology, particularly for those who live in marginal areas (dry land and forest edges). As a result, the supply of cassava to various industries is not continuous. It can be overcome by applying the recommended technology for both improved varieties and cultivation, as well as cropping patterns setting [14].

Indonesia is the fourth largest cassava-producing country in the world with a total production of 19–20 million tons after Nigeria (57 million tons), Thailand (30 million tons),


#### **Table 1.**

*Realization and prediction of planting area, harvesting area, and cassava productivity in Indonesia.*

and Brazil (23 million tons). The area of cassava planting in 2019 was 628,305 ha with a production of 16.35 million tons spread across 13 provinces. Over the last five years, cassava productivity tends to increase *c.a.* 2.85%. The average growth rate increased by 2.64% per year, with productivity from 97.51 ku/ha in 2011 to 239.13 ku/ha in 2016. The average growth of cassava export volume and value in 2000–2015 increased by 96.21% and 118.22% per year, respectively. Indonesia exports cassava in fresh and processed forms (flour, driedshredded cassava, and pellets), especially to Taiwan, the Philippines, Australia, Malaysia, England, and Brunei Darussalam [15, 16].

The opportunity for cassava development is very large, considering the land availability is relatively wide. Based on data from BPS in 2005, the potential for dry land in Indonesia was 25,955,901 ha consisting of 10,775,051 ha of upland, 3,839,093 ha of idle land or *ladang*, and 11,341,757 ha of temporarily uncultivated land. These lands have the potential for agricultural areas, including the development of cassava cultivation. The minimum world demand for cassava is 271.6 million tons (**Table 2**) [17–20]. With the large potential of land in Indonesia for cassava cultivation, the world's needs can be met by cassava production from Indonesia by only requiring a cassava harvest area of 13.9 million ha or 54% of the potential dry land suitable for cassava cultivation.

There are 77 kinds of carbohydrates-source food crops in Indonesia in addition to rice. Among them, tubers, including cassava, have nutritional content equivalent to rice or wheat. As an alternative to non-rice food, cassava can be served in daily menu, as long as it is enriched with high protein food [21, 22]. Besides being processed directly from fresh roots, cassava can also be processed into an intermediate product in the form of flour, which can be further processed into food products with a longer shelf-life and higher-selling value.


Cassava is a rice substitute, which has an important role in supporting the food security of regions in Indonesia. However, there are still many obstacles faced in changing the existing consumption patterns in the community. Therefore, in regard

#### **Table 2.**

*Production and utilization of cassava in the world.*

*Prospects of Cassava Development in Indonesia in Supporting Global Food Availability in Future DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.106241*

to food security in regions, it is necessary to disseminate cassava-based food diversification as an alternative to rice or corn.

In line with the increasing demand for food and industrial materials, the availability of raw materials with quantity and quality which fulfill each demand requirement is indispensable. For example, as raw material for flour, cassava should have dry matter and starch content of >20%; and for foodstuffs and food industry material, in addition to high starch content, hydrogen cyanide (HCN) content must also be <50 mg/kg [23]. The strategies on it include providing suitable improved varieties and increasing productivity through cassava cultivation technology improvement, especially fertilization and pest control.
