Search

Rice stands as an important staple crop in Indonesia and Asia, prompting endeavors to enhance its production. One such technology, aimed at intensifying rice cultivation, involves optimizing plant density utilizing the "jajar legowo" system. This research was conducted within community rice fields located in Pasar Ambacang, Kuranji District, Padang City, West Sumatra, Indonesia, spanning from February 2020 to June 2020. The primary objective of this study was to assess the potential of the jajar legowo planting system, in conjunction with varying dosages of kieserite, to increase lowland rice yields. The study employed a two-factor experiment in a completely randomized design. The first factor is the jajar legowo types: A (25 cm x 12.5 cm x 50 cm) and B (25 cm x 25 cm x 50 cm). The second factor involved different kieserite dosages, comprising three levels (0, 150, 300 kg.ha-1). Each treatment combination was replicated four times. Our investigation unveiled that rice panicle length reached 27.20 cm under the influence of jajar legowo type A with a kieserite dosage of 150 kg.ha-1. Conversely, with the application of jajar legowo type B alongside a kieserite dose of 300 kg.ha-1, the rice panicle length increased to 27.88 cm. The highest yield was obtained with jajar legowo type A at a dose of 300 kg.ha-1, producing 5.35 tons.ha-1. It is recommended to implement the jajar legowo type A cropping pattern with the addition of 150 kg.ha-1 of kieserite, or jajar legowo type B with the addition of 300 kg.ha-1 of kieserite.

The conversion of fertile land into industrial areas and construction development has contributed to the decline of rice production in Indonesia. Therefore, it is necessary to expand the rice fields to the sub-optimal land, i.e. lands with high levels of Fe and Al and low soil pH. One of the solutions that can potentially solve the problem is choosing varieties of rice that can adapt to the suboptimal land environment; the rice varieties can be obtained by estimating rice genetic parameters and selecting the optimal planting methods. One method that can potentially improve rice yield is “System of Rice Intensification”, or SRI method. Our study was conducted in the rice fields on suboptimal land at Pasar Ambacang, Kuranji District, Padang, Sumatra, from December 2019 to April 2020. The aims of the experiment are to determine the genetic parameters and responses of the three rice varieties to suboptimal land using the SRI method. A complete randomized design with four replications was used to set up the experiment using three varieties of rice, i.e. “Batang Piaman”, “Bujang Marantau”, and “IPB3S”. Based on the plant growth measurement and analysis of the genetic parameters, we found that the plant growth characters, particularly height and panicles length, had high heritability and genetic progression values.