Strip cropping and monoculture pattern for maize development on a rainfed rice fields

Abstract

South Sulawesi has 228,605 hectares of rainfed rice fields as potential for maize development. Increasing maize production in rainfed lowland land can be done through strip cropping and monoculture patterns. The purpose of the study was to see the effect of a maize-based dual cropping pattern on the production of strip cropping and monoculture maize, as well as the value of the land equivalence ratio of monoculture and strip cropping patterns. The dual cropping patterns studied were maize strip cropping with peanuts, maize strip cropping of mung beans, maize strip cropping with soybeans and maize strip cropping of sweet potatoes. The feasibility of applying the strip cropping systems can be seen from the Land Equivalence Ratio (LER) value of more than one. It means it is profitable. Maize strip cropping with peanut had the highest LER value of 1.38 and maize strip crop with mung bean had the lowest LER of 0.75.