Analysis of water availability and planting index in dams in Bedadung watershed

Abstract

The increasing population causes the government to work to improve food security. One of the policies adopted is to increase the productivity of agricultural land. Increased productivity of agricultural land can be increased by increasing the crop index. Planting index is the total area for crops per planting season for a year. In this case support from irrigation, the sector is very important. From the preliminary survey in the study area, we found some damage to the irrigation assets that might reduce the performance of the assets which caused the crop index to be lower than the maximum crop index (300%). This study aims to (1) calculate the availability of irrigation water, (2) calculate the crop index, and (3) analyze the potential increase in the crop index and the expansion of agricultural land. The results showed that there were 80 dams (44.4%) experienced abundant water but had a crop index value of less than 300%. Thus, the service area of 80 dams can be increased the value of the planting index to 300%. While there are 100 dams (55.6%) experiencing water shortages. In this case, the recommendations that can be given are providing water supply through the construction of a reservoir or changing the pattern of planting paddy - paddy - paddy into paddy - palawija -palawija. We conclude that water delivery in the Bedadung Watershed area is not effective. This can be caused by damage to irrigation assets. Therefore, a recommendation that can be given for further research is the effect of irrigation asset performance on irrigation services.