Crop Water Requirements Analysis Using Cropwat 8.0 Software in Maize Intercropping with Rice and Soybean

Abstract

The increasing level of land conversion from fertile farmland towards infrastructural purposes land such as residential and industrial land results in the devolving of the expansion of maize area from fertile land to land marginal. Maize is one of the crops that is being targeted for development planning in the food and agriculture sector. To improve food self-sufficiency, especially maize, commodity, proper management of the production processes such as crop water requirement and the intercropping pattern is needed. The purpose of this study is to find out how much water needs of plants in intercropping maize with rice, and intercropping corn with soybeans. To intensify food self-sufficiency especially maize commodities, proper management of the production process is required such as crop water requirements and intercropping patterns aspects. The purpose of the research is to find out the value of crop water requirements in intercropping maize with rice, as well as intercropping maize with soybeans. This research uses a descriptive method which describes the crop water requirement affecting the productivity using software Cropwat 8.0. The results show that crop water requirements of maize in intercropping with rice is 406.3 mm while water requirement with soybean intercropping is 408.6 mm during the growing season. The average productivity of maize intercropping with rice was 7.454 ton/ha of a dry kernel, whereas, in intercropping maize with soybean, productivity value of maize is 7.88 ton/ha of a dry kernel. The best combination, according to the productivity and the crop water requirement, is the maize intercropping with soybean. The difference in productivity is up to 5.7 percent with only 2.3 mm additional water demand for maize and intercropping rice plants.