Land suitability evaluation for sweet corn in third cropping period at Wonosari Village, Karanganyar, Indonesia

Abstract

Climate change causes irregularity of rainfall, affecting the availability of groundwater and decrease crop production. This research aimed to investigate land suitability class for sweet corn in the third cropping period which takes place in the dry season (during June-September) at Wonosari Village. This research used survey method with purposive sampling. Wonosari Village classified into 4 Land Map Units (LMU). The actual land suitability was N class (not suitable) divided into 2 sub-classes: N1 class (currently not suitable) at LMU 1, 3, and 4 with rainfall as the limiting factor, and N2 class (permanently not suitable) at LMU 2 with crude material as the limiting factor. Improvement efforts were conducted on the LMUs with N1 class and marginally suitable class (S3) by providing organic materials, fertilizing, liming, and flooding the rain-fed fields. The improvement efforts resulted in an upgrade into moderately suitable class (S2) at LMU 1, 3 and 4 with limiting factors of crude material, soil depth, base saturation and erosion hazard, and not suitable class (N) at LMU 2 with limiting factors of crude material content. Sweet corn cultivation in Wonosari would be more profitable if conducted in the cropping periods I and II to overcome the low rainfall constraint.