Optimizing agricultural land area to increase productivity for anticipating decreasing irrigation water supply

Abstract

In order to maintain food security in Indonesia it is very necessary to organize the provision of irrigation water as well as possible. Current surface water discharge conditions have decreased compared to 10 years ago so that there really must be efficiency and wise efforts in the provision of irrigation water in paddy fields. Many efforts to increase the productivity of paddy fields and one of them is by optimizing the area of paddy fields and regulating cropping patterns in the paddy fields. In the initial stage of this study an analysis of the availability of surface water discharge was then analyzed for irrigation water requirements that could be given to each paddy field in accordance with a predetermined cropping pattern. Then a land area simulation is carried out to obtain the most optimal land area. This simulation is carried out in the conditions of the wet season, the normal season and the dry season. Simulations are carried out with various cropping patterns including rice, secondary crops and sugar cane. Simulation results show that the most optimal land area is in the wet season, then the normal season and the dry season.