Abstract:
Major factors that constitute a threat to food security is shifting Papuan diet from sweetpotato and sago to rice. This situation is exacerbated by implementation of the government program so called "Rice for Poor (Raskin)". The dependency on rice as what has been seen today is not favorable for food security in this region. Therefore, communities’ awareness in maintaining the diversity of local food is needed for food security in this region. The research was conducted to achieve the following objectives: (i) Documenting the diversity of sweetpotato, its utilization, and overall cultivar frequency (OCF) and relative cultivar frequency (RCF) in the Arfak Mountain Regions, as well as gender knowledge towards sweetpotato cultivars, (ii) Identifying the trends in the use of cultivars, especially the overall decline and/or the frequency shift relative to other cultivars or other food crops, (iii) Determine the level of intervention that can stabilize the current sweetpotato diversity through the use of alternative and improving recognition of their contribution to the landscape tough. The study was conducted in 2012 in Minyambouw, Hink and Anggi districts of Arfak Mountain Region. Method of this study consisted of (i) Documentation of the community diversity level (CDD), collection and documentation of sweetpotato cultivars existed in the village or other social groups through group meeting. Meeting was previously planned and was carried out by invited farmers. Farmers were asked to bring all sweetpotato cultivars which are planted in their gardens (ii) Mapping RCF was done by counting the number of sweetpotato per sweetpotato cultivar at each plot. Based on the study, sweetpotato diversity in the Arfak Mountains is still relatively high. Based on documentation study of the community-scale (sweetpotato Exhibition): Hink District has the highest number of sweet potato cultivars (50 cultivars) compared to Anggi District (30 cultivars), and Minyambouw District (15 cultivars). Sweetpotato cultivars that have the highest OCF or brought by many participants are Syeb Nggrai and Syeb Ngoi and S. Simpeungei (Minyambouw), Bkau Ngoi (Hink), and Sweet Aug. (Anggi). The morphological characteristics of tubers and leaves of all sweetpotato cultivars were varied widely. There were several cultivars that did not longer planted by people in Arfak Mountains, such as Syeb Nipon, Syeb Sinong, and Syeb Snoggau in Minyambouw, Hiba and Bkaw Bkaw Braba in Hink, and Aug. Tug, Aug Bocop, and Aug Birerec in Anggi. In the selection of seeds for the next sweetpotato cultivation, the Arfak people prefer planting materials from their own garden. Vine cutting is used as planting material for sweetpotato cultivation.