Water Productivity; a Sustainable Pathway to Agricultural Extensification and Climate Adaptation?

<p>Water Productivity (WP), a pointer to crop performance vis-à-vis consumptive water use, has fevered debates around agricultural water use, away from scheme-based efficiency to field-scale productive value of water, that can be optimised in localities of increasing absolute and relative scarcity. Research on WP sprung from such debates to become a growth industry, that measures irrigation inefficiencies, poised towards developing economies and “low” value uses of water, to justify its reallocation across sectors, sometimes away from agriculture. While water allocation decisions increasingly prioritise sectoral productivity of freshwater resources, burgeoning food security measures to water scarcity adaptation is shifting management decisions from the purview of scheme managers to individual farming units, underscoring the need to parallel WP initiatives with the resilience of local livelihoods. In this study, we analyse the potential contribution of WP as an agricultural extensification mechanism for a water-scarce irrigated region. The Surface Energy Balance Algorithm for Land (SEBAL), is used to estimate evapotranspiration as a proxy for irrigated water consumption. An automated derivative, the pySEBAL model, is used to compute crop biomass combined with satellite-based evapotranspiration to estimate WP across 1680 heterogeneous groundwater irrigated fields in the eastern Azraq basin of Jordan. WP gap was hereafter estimated as the difference between the current field WP, to a selected productivity range, attainable within infrastructural and agroclimatic limits. By investigating the possibility of closing WP gaps, we show that a careful selection of WP thresholds to benchmark localised irrigated water consumption offers the potential to reduce seasonal irrigation water use within a range of 18 to 29% of the current consumption, without adversely affecting crop yield and related livelihoods. Such range (5 – 9 MCM[†]) for a water-scarce Azraq basin, offers substantial relief to groundwater resources, related ecosystems, and long-term catchment sustainability. We additionally demonstrate that this provides a window for agricultural extensification by leveraging farm management practices across irrigated fields. We finally propose entrepreneurial and capacity building opportunities from analysing dynamics in farmers' individual water use behaviour. WP, as a useful indicator for water reallocation under water-scarce conditions, would need to consider equitable utilisation of water resources and the resilience of local livelihoods.</p><div><br><div> <p>[†] Million Cubic Meters</p> </div> </div>

The Response of Eggplant (Solanum Melongena L.) Growth Planted on Raised-Bog Peatland towards the Provision of Chicken Dung and Swallow Guano

—Eggplant (Solanum Melongena L.) is one of the agricultural commodities needed and a kind of vegetables favored because it is not only good in the taste, it also contains potassium and vitamin A which can be beneficial for the body. Eggplant production in Indonesia is low, but the need is high. So it is necessary to increase production, one of them is conducting agricultural extensification. Agricultural extensification can be carried out on land that has not been used properly, such as raised-bog peatland. On the other hand, raised-bog peatland is marginal land that is poor in nutrients and acidic in nature, so that the condition of the peatland is not supportive for plant growth. Therefore, it is necessary to add organic materials such as chicken dung and swallow guano to support the growth and yield of eggplant on raised-bog peatland. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of chicken dung and swallow guano and their interaction on the yield of eggplant (Solanum Melongena L.) in the raised-bog peatland. This research used a group-randomized design (GRD) with 2 factors: chicken dung and swallow guano as fertilizer with 3 equal levels (a1/w1 = 5 tons/ha; a2/w2 = 10 tons/ha; a3/w3 = 15 tons/ha). The parameter observed and measured were the yield of eggplant. The results showed that the single use of swallow guano as fertilizer had a significant effect on fruit diameter and length, the quantity of fruit for each plant, the average weight of fresh fruit, fruit weight for each plant, and fruit weight for each hectare. On the other hand, the use of chicken dung as fertilizer had a significant effect on the number of fruit per plant, fruit weight per plant, and fruit weight per hectare. The results showed that the best eggplant yield component was obtained from the addition of swallow guano fertilizer at a dose of 15 t ha-1, namely resulted in a fruit weight per plant of 541,14 g tan-1 and a total fruit weight per ha of 12,88 t ha-1. Whereas in chicken dung fertilizer treatment, the most optimum dose is 10 t ha1 which can produce eggplant fruit weight per plant of 531,56 g tan-1 and 12,66 t ha-1 in total eggplant fruit weight per ha.

RANCANG BANGUN ALAT PENANAM BENIH PADI BERBASIS ARDUINO NANO

This research activity aims to facilitate farmers in the process of planting rice seeds in order to increase agricultural extensification. In this research we use the method of hardware progaming research. This tool is also operated wirelessly by the controller. After undergoing several stages, this research was successfully completed so that the rice seed planter was able to be used by farmers.

Kebutuhan dan Ketersediaan Lahan Cadangan Untuk Mewujudkan Cita-Cita Indonesia Sebagai Lumbung Pangan Dunia Tahun 2045

<p>Arable land availability for agricultural extensification is a determining factor to achieve Indonesia’s food self-sufficiency and to become the world food supplier in 2045. This study aimed to evaluate land reserves for future agricultural development. Spatial analysis was conducted using land cover map, peatland distribution map, indicative map of suspension of new permits, forest status map, licensing map, and agricultural land use recommendation map. The land assumed to be potentially available should be (i) idle land covered by shrub as well as bare land, (ii) agronomically suitable for agriculture, (iii) within the designated area of non-forest uses (APL), conversion production forest (HPK), or production forest (HP), (iv) outside the moratorium area, and (v) outside the licensed area. Analysis results show that out of 29.8 million hectares of idle land, only about 7.9 million hectares are potentially available for future agricultural extensification. The available potential land area is much less than that required to meet the self-sufficiency target and to become the world food storage by 2045, i.e. of 5.3 million hectares for rice crop, shallot and sugar cane, and about 10.3 million hectares for upland rice, maize, soybean, peanut, mungbean, sugar cane, shallot, cassava, and sweet potato. Therefore, the main strategies to take are intensification of existing agricultural land and a strict control of agricultural land conversion.</p><p> </p><p>Abstrak</p><p>Ketersediaan lahan untuk ekstensifikasi lahan pertanian menjadi salah satu faktor penentu keberhasilan untuk mempertahankan swasembada pangan dan untuk menjadikan Indonesia sebagai lumbung pangan dunia menjelang tahun 2045. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengevaluasi cadangan lahan yang tersedia untuk pengembangan areal pertanian ke depan. Analisis spasial dilakukan menggunakan peta tutupan lahan, peta sebaran lahan gambut, peta indikatif penundaan pembukaan izin baru, peta status kawasan hutan, peta perizinan, dan peta arahan tata ruang pertanian. Lahan yang diasumsikan potensial tersedia adalah lahan yang (i) lahan telantar yang ditutupi semak belukar dan lahan terbuka, (ii) secara agronomis sesuai untuk pertanian, (iii) berada pada peruntukan kawasan areal penggunaan lain (APL), hutan produksi konversi (HPK), hutan produski (HP), (iv) berada di luar areal moratorium, dan (v) berada di luar areal yang sudah memiliki perizinan. Hasil analisis menunjukkan bahwa dari sekitar 29,8 juta ha lahan telantar, hanya sekitar 7,9 juta ha yang berpotensi tersedia untuk ekstensifikasi pertanian masa depan. Luas lahan potensial tersedia ini jauh lebih rendah dari kebutuhan lahan untuk memenuhi target swasembada dan mewujudkan Indonesia sebagai lumbung pangan dunia menjelang 2045 yaitu 5,3 juta ha untuk padi sawah, bawang dan tebu dan sekitar 10,3 juta ha untuk padi gogo, jagung, kedelai, kacang hijau, kacang tanah, tebu, bawang merah, ubi jalar, ubi kayu. Oleh karena itu, strategi utama yang harus ditempuh adalah intensifikasi lahan pertanian eksisting dan pengendalian konversi lahan pertanian secara ketat.</p>

Ecosystem services and land sparing potential of urban and peri-urban agriculture: A review

Agricultural expansion contributes to the degradation of biodiverse ecosystems and the services these systems provide. Expansion of urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA), on the other hand, may hold promise to both expand the portfolio of ecosystem services (ES) available in built environments, where ES are typically low and to reduce pressure to convert sensitive non-urban, non-agricultural ecosystems to agriculture. However, few data are available to support these hypotheses. Here we review and summarize the research conducted on UPA from 320 peer-reviewed papers published between 2000 and 2014. Specifically, we explored the availability of data regarding UPA's impact on ES and disservices. We also assessed the literature for evidence that UPA can contribute to land sparing. We find that the growth in UPA research over this time period points to the emerging recognition of the potential role that UPA systems play in food production worldwide. However, few studies (n = 15) place UPA in the context of ES, and no studies in our review explicitly quantify the land sparing potential of UPA. Additionally, while few studies (n = 19) quantify production potential of UPA, data that are necessary to accurately quantify the role these systems can play in land sparing, our rough estimates suggest that agricultural extensification into the world's urban environments via UPA could spare an area approximately twice the size of the US state of Massachusetts. Expanding future UPA research to include quantification of ES and functions would shed light on the ecological tradeoffs associated with agricultural production in the built environment. As food demand increases and urban populations continue to grow, it will be critical to better understand the role urban environments can play in global agricultural production and ecosystem preservation.

ASINKRONISASITRANSFORMASI PRODUKSI DI KABUPATEN SUKOHARJO

The best economic development is appropriate economical development to community self-identity. The experience of Sukoharjo regency which follow capitalistic national development pattern precisely causes agricultural self-identity of Sukoharjo regency decrease and in the future it will possibly disappear.The strategic and short term solution in overcoming capitalistic development and in returning self identity of Sukoharjo regency are local governmental one-sidedness with agricultural sector. The real implementations of the one-sidedness are agricultural intensification policy, agricultural extensification policy, and product focus policy. From agricultural intensification policy, it is hoped that local government develops the distribution system of welfare agricultural intensification product. From Agricultural extensification policy, local government is hoped make local regulation of lied-idle field using, and from production policy focus of local government of Sukoharjo Regency, it has to focus on outstanding agricultural product so that it creates agroindustry.