The Correlation between Rainfall, Temperature, Relative Humidity, and Rice Field Productivity in Aceh Besar

Abstract

Various factors could affect rice field productivity, such as climate, management practices, and soil properties. Aceh Besar had experienced long drought, higher temperature, shifted seasons, and the decrease yield of rice productivity due to climate change. This research aimed to analyze the correlation between climate variables and rice field productivity, such as rainfall and mean, minimum, and maximum temperatures, relative humidity in Aceh Besar District. The monthly climate data and the rice field productivity data were employed for 10 (2011-2020) and 8 (2011-2018) consecutive years, respectively. The correlation between the climate variables were calculated using Pearson coefficient correlation. The results showed that rainfall and maximum temperature were positively correlated, as well as rainfall and relative humidity. In contrary, rainfall and mean temperature, rainfall and minimum temperature, rainfall and rice field productivity were negatively correlated. The latest indicating that rainfall did not impact the rice field productivity in Aceh Besar. It was quite contradictive to the reality in the field that significantly experiencing the long drought, higher temperature, shifted seasons and the decrease yield of rice field productivity. This was due to the lack of climate data employed that required longer period preferably 30 to 50 years which was not available.