Assessment of Increasing Rice Plant Index 400 with the Application of Environmentally Friendly Rice Cultivation Technology in Irrigation Land, Banjar City, West Java

Abstract

Abstract Achieving rice self-sufficiency is the main target of the Ministry of Agriculture in order to meet the demand for rice consumption which continues to increase every year. Various efforts have been made, including through a program to increase the Rice Planting Index (PI) from 300 to 400 or from three times to four times in one year. The research aim was to determine the technical and financial feasibility of increasing PI Paddy 400 by applying Environmentally Friendly Rice Cultivation (EFRC) technology to irrigated paddy fields. The study was carried out in an irrigated paddy field in Pataruman Village, Pataruman District, Banjar City, West Java Province, Indonesia. The study used an adaptive research approach on 2.0 ha of farmers’ land involving 12 implementing farmers (cooperators). The assessment will be carried out in 2021, starting from the 2nd Planting Season (PS) to the 4th PS, while the 1st PS activities have been carried out by farmers. The technology adapted is the early maturing New Superior Varieties (NSV) Cakrabuana and M70D as well as setting cropping patterns and implementing EFRC technology packages. The results of the study show that the use of NSV Cakrabuana and M70D can speed up harvest time, so that they can harvest four times in one year. EFRC technology can increase rice production for one year by 24.24% from 16.5 to 20.5 tons of dry harvested grain (DHG). Farmers are still hesitant to develop PI 400 rice technology even though it is financially profitable and feasible with an RC Ratio of 1.84.