Land management without burning and corn productivity enhancement during long dry season in West Kalimantan, Indonesia

Abstract

In long dry season (El Nino), thousand hectares of agricultural land in Indonesia to experience drought, and sometimes wildfires occur naturally. Land management without burning and environmentally friendly agricultural cultivation needs to be done in the long dry season. It is not recommended to use crop residue that is burned on the land, since the residue can be composted into organic matter which later is returned to the agricultural land as organic fertilizer. Currently, about 40% farmers use local corn varieties. Corn farming lands in Indonesia are generally deficient in nitrogen. Consequently, drought tolerant new superior corn varieties complemented with right dose fertilizer based on plant needs, especially N fertilizer, are needed to increase corn productivity in the dry season. This research aimed to ascertain adaptive hybrid corn varieties and right N fertilizer rate on the growth and productivity of corn planted on the land without burning. The experimental design was Randomized Complete Block Design consisting of 2 factors. The first factor was corn varieties, namely Bima 19, Nasa 29, and JH 21; whereas, the second factor was N fertilizer rate, namely 64, 86.5, 109, and 131.5 kg ha-1. The combination of the two factors consisted of 12 treatments, which were repeated 3 times. The results showed that there was an interaction between the new high yielding varieties and the N fertilizer rate on corn productivity. Greater yields were performed in Bima 19 with N rate of 109 and 131.5 kg ha-1 and Nasa 29 with N rate of 131.5 kg ha-1 i.e., 8.45, 7.94, and 8.04 t ha-1, respectively. Bima 19 and Nasa 29 are drought tolerant high yielding corn varieties.