Strategi Penelitian Budidaya Untuk Meningkatkan Produktivitas Dan Daya Saing Pala / Research Strategy of Cultivation to Improve Productivity and Competitiveness of Nutmeg

Indonesia is the first producer and exporter of nutmeg in the world. Nutmeg is a strategic commodity since it generates foreign exchange as well as providing jobs for number of farmers. The main problem in nutmeg is low productivity and product quality, hence the competitiveness is lower than other exporting countries such as Grenada and India. Currently, has been released four varieties of nutmeg prefetch queue that have the potential to produce between 5.120 - 7.500 grains/tree or 1.000 -1.500 kg/year with oil content in seeds between 10,80% - 11,85% and the mace between 13,9% - 20%. If the development of area using grafting material of high-yielding varieties, the potential increase in productivity can be increased from 472 kg/year to 1.500 kg/year. In order for the potential production of high-yielding varieties appear, it needs to be supported with cultivation technology properly and efficiently, such as determining the optimal spacing, determination fertilizer recommendations impartial and specific locations, and optimization of sex ratio for increasing productive plant from 60% to 90 % with graftign in situ. However, information related to research cultivation on nutmeg is very limited. Therefore, it is important to develop research strategies of cultivation to support the improvement of productivity and product quality of nutmeg efficiently. The availability of cultivation technology applicable and feasible, the efforts to increase the productivity and quality of nutmeg be achieved efficiently, so that in addition to impact on farmers' income increase of nutmeg will also improve the competitiveness of Indonesian nutmeg in the International market