1999 Volume 43 Issue 3 Pages 188-194
This study was conducted to determine the adaptability of improved cropping systems in Kendari, Southeast Sulawesi Province, Indonesia. For agriculture in the humid tropics, sufficient and suitable distribution of rainfall is a major factor for farming.
Farmers generally grow rice in rainfed fields only once a year. To obtain information on mean rainfall and coefficients of variation (CV), data obtained for more than ten years, divided into ten-day periods, were analyzed. It was evident that a high CV (more than 100%) indicates dry seasons, while a low CV indicates the rainy season. Moreover there are two types of rainy seasons: stable rainy season (CV less than 50 %) and unstable rainy season (CV 50-99%) . Based on the analysis of the data, cropping systems can be recommended. The most beneficial approach is the cultivation of three crops in a year. The first cropping takes place the unstable rainy season from the end of November to February. The third cropping, again of field crops, starts at the end of the rainy season and during the post-rainy season after the main paddy rice harvest. Here, dry sowing technology with sowing just before rainfall led to beneficial results for the first cropping as observed in the case of maize and green gram cultivation. Three crops in a year were recommended and cultivated in farmers' fields, whereby paddy rice cultivation was combined with that of upland rice, soybean, maize and green gram, a cultivation pattern characterized by “field crops-paddy rice-field crops”.
