Efforts to improve corn production using the technique of automatic irrigation in dry land West Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara

Abstract

Rejekiningrum P, Kartiwa B. 2015. Efforts to improve corn production using the technique of automatic irrigation in dry land West Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara. Pros Sem Nas Masy Biodiv Indon 1: 2027-2033. Increasing production and productivity of corn crops in dryland is constrained by the limited availability of water due to low utilization of the potential availability of water. Efforts to optimize the use of water require information on potential water availability and water needs of plants for the determination of cropping pattern. The research aims to: (i). Identifying characteristics of water resources (supply and demand), (ii) Develop design water management and irrigation technology automatically based on the characteristics of water resources, and (iii). Calculating the production of various varieties of corn crops. Based on information on the availability of water, then automatic irrigation technology designed a big gun sprinkler as supplementary irrigation in various varieties of corn crops (Srikandi Kuning, Sukmaraga, Bima-3, Bisma, and Lamuru). Crop water requirement was analyzed based on crop water requirement according to FAO crop water balance model, this method calculates the water requirement of crops taking into account the physical characteristics of the soil and the depth of the roots of each phase of plant growth. Based on the model of water availability-requirement balance is calculated irrigation requirement (volume and interval) for different varieties of corn crops developed. Volume and interval analysis results indicate that the total irrigation is given at the beginning of (dry season/DS)-2 in July during its growth phase (105 days) of 524 mm. Irrigation interval is given every 10 days with volumes ranging from 34 minutes to 1 hour 56 minutes. With supplementary irrigation using sprinklers, a big gun will save energy and time for irrigation, thus increasing the efficiency of water use when compared with conventional irrigation. Corn crop varieties Bima-3 potential to be developed because it has the potential to produce relatively high at 4.51 tonnes/ha and can produce more biomass that is equal to 2.66 tons/ha compared to varieties Srikandi Kuning, Sukmaraga, Bisma, and the Lamuru production has ranged from 3.19 to 4.01 tonnes/ha and biomass from 1.61 to 2.56 tons/ha.