Maize yield in a dryland area as affected by rainfall variability

Abstract

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.

Organic foliar fertilizer to improve yield of cayenne pepper (Capsicum frutescens L.) grown off-season

“…With regard to the agrocological conditions, farmer in the dry land area in North Lombok usually grow maize in the rainy season. However, the production and the income of maize farmers in that area is strongly affected by rainfall patterns [7]. On the other hand, the global rainfall patterns have recently changed as a result of climate change effects [8].…”

“…Planting cayenne pepper in the rainy season is one of the options. However, the soil fertility has low content of organic matter, which is less than 1% [7]. Soils with low organic matter content generally have a low nutrient availability [9].…”

The performance of new early maturing pro-vitamin A maize (Zea mays L.) hybrids in the derived savanna agro-ecology of Nigeria

“…The average hybrid maize grain yield between 8 and 10 t ha -1 has been previously reported under disease-free conditions in maize breeding (Ininda et al, 2006;Adebayo et al, 2014). Hence, the genetic potentials of the hybrids were influenced by the year variation, as having been similarly identified in previous studies as a cause of a possible yield reduction (Beyene et al, 2012;Chabala et al, 2015;Jaya et al, 2020).…”

Pengenalan Teknologi Pertanian Berkelanjutan Kepada Petani Di Lahan Kering Desa Gumantar, Kabupaten Lombok Utara

“…Namun akhir-akhir ini, petani di desa ini juga mengusahakan tanaman hortikultura, seperti cabai, tomat, terung dan melon pada musim penghujan. Hal ini dimungkinkan karena sebagian besar lahan didominasi oleh fraksi pasiran, atau lempung pasiran sehingga air hujan tidak menggenang, Namun di satu sisi, tingkat kesuburan tanahnya sangat rendah karena rendahnya kandungan karbon organik di dalam tanah (Jaya et al, 2020). Akibatnya, untuk mendapatkan hasil tanaman yang optimal, dibutuhkan pupuk anorganik dalam jumlah yang sangat besar.…”

“…Dengan keterbatasan air irigasi ini tentunya akan berdampak terhadap kualitas produk hortikultura yang dihasilkan, karena kita tahu kalau produk hortikultura itu berkualitas karena kandungan airnya yang tinggi. Sementara itu, pada musim penghujan, dengan pola curah hujan yang erratic sebagai akibat dari terjadinya perubahan iklim, sering kali hujan hilang dalam kurun waktu yang cukup lama (Jaya et al, 2020) atau air berlebih. Air hujan yang berlebih ini berpotensi untuk menghanyutkan unsur hara yang ada di dalam tanah.…”