Design of Drip Irrigation for Cayenne Pepper

Abstract

Chili is one of the strategic vegetable commodities both red chili and cayenne pepper that farmers in West Sumatra productivity and quality are relatively low when compared to national productivity. Low productivity of chili is caused by physical factors and biotic factors. Water arrangement is one of the factors that determines the success of plant production because water is a basic need for plants. Chili is a sensitive plant to water shortages and excess because the rooting system is shallow. Thus, a more precise water supply system is required. Designing and using drip irrigation is a way of managing the agriculture of cayenne pepper with the rules of precission farming to increase the productivity. Drip irrigation system has a good way of controlling since the water is flowed until absorbed by plants. In addition, the system will reduce evaporation, and nutrients can be directly fed to plants through irrigation. This system is suitable for having high economic value of plants, so that it could cover the cost of development and management. The designed drip irrigation is expected to serve about 1, 000 of cayenne pepper, which can be built and managed by farmers and operate in a simple, easy-to-understand and relatively easy-to-obtain material on the market. The result obtained by the design of drip irrigation at a tower height of 2 m, a tank capacity of 180 liters, two filters (10 microns), an adjusted emitter for water output, a flow of 200 l/hour. with an operating time of 8 hours per day, is estimated to be able to serve around 3.000 to 4, 000 cayenne pepper plants on maximum water requirements on the plastic mulch soil. The drip irrigation capacity is also determined by the turbidity level of the water from the source. In limited conditions on an experimental area of 300 m^2 and relatively flat land, a watering uniformity index of 83% was achieved. The capacity of irrigation services can still be increased by increasing the pressure height, increase the water flow range and increase the number of filters and increase operating hours.