BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Sustain. Food Syst.
Sec. Nutrition and Sustainable Diets
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvancing Sustainability in Global Nutrition and Food ManagementView all 4 articles
Mapping Cocoa Land Dynamics to Advance Circular and Sustainable Food Systems in Indonesia (1975–2023)
Provisionally accepted
Sahlan Sahlan1
Andjar Prasetyo2*Amos Lukas1Sofia Anita3Raden Djoko Gunawan1Eko Bhakti Susetyo1Huda M Elmatsani1Heru Mulyono1Sudarwaji Edi Yuwono Trihadi1Ari Gunawan1Irshan Zainuddin1Suharto Ngudiwaluyo1Joni Iskandar1- 1Badan Riset dan Inovasi Nasional Republik Indonesia, Central Jakarta, Indonesia
- 2Bappeda Kota Magelang, Central Java, Indonesia, Magelang, Indonesia
- 3Universitas Riau, Pekanbaru, Indonesia
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This study analyzes the spatiotemporal dynamics of cocoa cultivation areas across 25 Indonesian provinces from 1975 to 2023 using a Random Forest Clustering approach and t-SNE visualization. The analysis identifies five distinct regional clusters that reveal long-term disparities in cocoa development—ranging from areas of consistent decline and stagnation to regions experiencing rapid growth or sharp contraction. These clusters reflect varying local challenges and opportunities linked to land-use change, policy shifts, and environmental conditions. Beyond mapping agricultural trends, the study underscores the importance of managing land-use instability as a form of systemic food loss and highlights opportunities for circular interventions—such as transforming cocoa by-products into organic fertilizer, animal feed, and bioenergy. The resulting cluster-based typology provides a data-driven foundation for region-specific policies aimed at improving resource efficiency, reducing waste, strengthening farmer livelihoods, and advancing national food security within a circular and sustainable food systems framework.
Keywords: Cocoa, spatial-temporal clustering, random forest, Agriculture, Food security, t-SNE, Indonesia
Received: 29 Sep 2025; Accepted: 24 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Sahlan, Prasetyo, Lukas, Anita, Gunawan, Susetyo, Elmatsani, Mulyono, Trihadi, Gunawan, Zainuddin, Ngudiwaluyo and Iskandar. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Andjar Prasetyo, studidaerah@gmail.com
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