Information on the most suitable and high-yielding cayenne pepper variety for an off-season growing in dryland is important. This research aimed to examine the effect of foliar fertilizer on growth and yield of off-season cayenne pepper in dry land. The experiment was conducted during the rainy season of 2020/2021 in a dryland with a sandy loam soil texture in the area of Gumantar, North Lombok, Indonesia. Four cayenne pepper varieties, namely Dewata 43 F1, Pelita F1, Taruna, and Sret, were treated with three concentration levels (0%, 0,5%, and 1,0%) of organic foliar fertilizer. The treatments were arranged in a factorial randomized block design with three replications. The results revealed that application of foliar fertilizer increased number of flowers and yield, and reduced flower abortion. Pelita F1 yielded the highest, 11.5% higher than Dewata 43 F1 and three-fold higher than that of the non-hybrid varieties when treated with 1.0% of fertilizer. Dewata F1 was harvested at 70 days after transplanting (dat), followed by 76, 105 and 105 dat for Pelita F1, Sret and Taruna, respectively. To maximize the use of the rainfall and prolong the harvest time, Pelita F1 and Taruna varieties are highly recommended for dryland areas.

This study aimed to report maize yield in a dryland area of North Lombok as affected by rainfall variability. A three-year study was conducted during a period of maize growing season (December to April) in 2015/2016, 2016/2017 and 2017/2018 in Gumantar village, North Lombok. Daily rainfall data was collected from a rain gauge installed in one of maize farmers’ land. Estimation of drain upper limit and crop lower limit was done based on gravimetric method. Hand-held core kits were used to collect soil samples at 0-15cm, 15-30cm, 30-60cm depth at sowing, fast vegetative growth stage (35 days after sowing=DAS), grain filling stage (85 DAS), and at harvest. Maize yield data were collected from 20 farmers that all grew maize as main crop and legume crop (ground nut or mung bean) as secondary crop. There was great rainfall variability in term of the beginning of rainy season, volume and distribution of the rain as well as the occurrence of dry-spell period resulted in great maize yield variability. The highest maize yield recorded was 8.4 ton/ha and the lowest was 0.6 ton/ha. Growing legume crop in addition to maize can be a good practice in dryland area to avoid total yield loss.

To increase light interception in maize by improving the population density using a double-row pattern planting often causes difficulty in applying fertilizers. This study aimed to assess the light interception and yield of some maize hybrid varieties treated with and without a third application of urea fertilizer. The varieties tested were NK7328, BISI18, BISI2, and P35. The first application of urea was performed at planting, the second at 35 days after planting (DAP), and the third at 56 DAP. The experiment was conducted in an arid area with a sandy loam soil in the North Lombok region. Spacing for the double-row pattern was 35 × 20 cm2 within a double row and 70 cm between double rows, resulting in approximately 98,000 plants/ha. The results showed that light interception was significantly affected by the variety of maize but not by the third-time application of urea, being the highest (96.7%) in NK7328 and the lowest (92.0%) in BISI18. The yield was significantly affected by both the variety and the third application of urea. The highest yielding variety was P35 (9.7 ton/ha), followed by NK 7328 (9.5 ton/ha), BISI18 (8.8 ton/ha), and BISI2 (8.2 ton/ha). The third-time application of urea in a high maize population density improved the yield by 21%.

The objective of the research is to investigate the selection response indirectly on the corn yield in dry land, and the yield improvements of yield due to seven cycles. The selection method used were mass selection with and without pollination controll. The method used to minimize environmental effect during selection was subdivided block that (subselection block divided into small plots). In each plot, there was 40 plants, and the number plants selected were 5 %. Randomized Completely Block Design was used to study the selection result. The data collected were analyzed using Analysis of Variance, and the difference between populations were tested using Least Significant Difference in 5 % significant level. The average of selection response per cycle every technique used was gained from polynomial regression coefficient among the characters observed with selection cycle The percentage of the corn yield improvement was gained from the difference between the seventh cycle and the base population, and then, substracted by the base population. The result showed that the response indirectly of mass selection with and without pollination controll were significantly linear, and the values were 47.88 and 72.80 g per plot, respectively. The yield improvements were 43.46 % and 79.21 %, respectively

This study aimed to determine the change in total genetic diversity after eight cycles of mass selection using a technique of selection index for yield, fresh dry matter, and weight of dry harvested cob, and to find out the average of these three characters compared to the initial population. This experiment was carried out at Pringgabaya District, East Lombok Regency using Randomized Block Design (RBD) with 11 treatments, namely eight selected populations, initial populations and two hybrid varieties. Each treatment was replicated 3 times, resulted in 33 experimental units. Data obtained were analyzed using analysis of variance at 0.05 levels. Variance of phenotype is obtained from the variety of samples; while the environmental variance is defined as the average variance of the two hybrid phenotypes. Genetic diversity is obtained from the variety of phenotypes of each population minus the environmental diversity. F-test of  0.05 was performed to find out whether the genetic diversity of the eighth cycle population is the same or different to that of the genetic diversity of the initial population. The average between the initial population and the eighth cycle population was tested using the HSD-test at 0.05 levels. The results showed that the total genetic variation in the population from the eighth cycle selection for yield, harvested dry weight of cobs, and fresh dry matter of maize were smaller than the genetic diversity of the initial population. The average yield, harvested dry cob weight and fresh dry matter weight of population of the eighth cycle selection are higher than the initial population