Integrated Lowland Development for Sustainable Food Agriculture in Banyuasin District South Sumatra, Indonesia

Abstraksi

Banyuasin district with an area of 23,000 km2 has 18 sub-districts and was populated by more than 700,000 inhabitans. Approximately 220,000 ha of rice fields in this district are mainly reclamation areas and have provided rice surplus of more than 500,000 tons in 2016. The annual cropping season was mainly dominated by rice plants during the first planting season in November-March. Only about 15 % of these fields were grown with corn or beans in the second growing season in April-August. In 2010, the rice field in Tanjung Lago sub-district could only be planted once a year with rice yields of 3.0-4.0 ton/ha. In 2017, yields of 4.0-6.0 tons/ha were harvested in March, followed by a 20.0 ton/ha watermelon harvested in June, and in September corn was harvested in dry grain yields of 7.0 tons/ha. Integrated water and land management consists of three pillars, namely rehabilitation and/or improvement of drainage system; operation and maintenance of system with farmer group water user association; and implementation of agricultural system technology as the main keys for sustainable agricultural development. This planting system could be regarded as a very potential harvest for the area of Tanjung Lago. Unfortunately, these three crops for a year only reached 15 % of the total rice field area of 220,000 ha. It is needed for an action policy for water management for growth and sustainable agricultural development.