New Concept of Cultivation Using Limited Strip-Tillage with Strip Shallow Irrigation

Abstract

Dry land is one of land resources which potentially used for food crop cultivation, especially in the areas which have light to medium technical obstacles. The devel opment of technology to improve soil quality in mar ginal lands to be productive lands is still widely open for agricultu ral development in Indonesia. Rooting medium qualit y can be improved by changing soil tillage method and observing the prop er crop irrigation technology. It can be the soluti on for crop cultivation in clay loam soil. This study aimed to obtain water mo vement model in a minimally-tilled clay soil with s trip shallow irrigation. The concept is limited soil-tillage with strip shal low irrigation method, water supply technique, and crop water requirement. Method used in this study includes developing water movement model (software development) in a minimal ly-tilled clay soil with subsurface irrigation. In the final stages, research also conducted water movement analysis testi ng apparatus in the laboratory, field validation of the subsurface irri gation performance, and cultivation technique testi ng to chili pepper growth (Capsicum annuumL.). The development of water movem ent simulation on a limited strip-tillage with subs urface irrigation uses the concept to quantify the amount of water in the soil. The analysis of movement pattern was dem onstrated on contour patterns. It showed that the wetting process can re ach depth zone - 5 cm to the rooting zone. It was a n important discovery on the development of minimum stripe tillage soil with subsurface irrigation. Specifically, it can be con cluded that: the result of fitting by eyes to diffusivity graphic and water co ntent obtained the required parameter values for so il physical properties. It was then simulated on horizontal water movement mod el on a minimum strip-tillage with strip shallow ir rigation .