Floating Agriculture Model from Bamboo for Rice Cultivation on Swamp Land At South Sumatra

摘要

Water level is rather deep during rain season in swampland for about 3 to 6 months each year at South Sumatra. That's why there is no cultivation activity on this swampland at this time. The aim of this research was to design a raft made of bamboo which was used for rice cultivation and to find out the growth of rice on organic treated soil and untreated. Designing and making a raft took about 3 months because had to be on floating condition when the soil was added and water able to diffuse to the soil. The size of each floating bamboo raft was 300 cm x 150 cm. This research used 2 rafth where was one raft with organic fertilizer addition about 2 cm thick and the other was only mineral soil as medium. Characteristics of soil from swampland, organic compost and swamp water were analysed before using for treatment. Paddy's row were between 25 cm x 25 cm and 10 samples were taken from each raft, then data was analysed using T-test. The results show that organic fertilizer increased significantly plant height, maximum and productive rice tillers and rice weight. This was caused by organic fertilizer containning more nutrients than mineral soil from the swamp land. Due to without addition of mineral fertilizer and without watering during rice growth, then this floating rice cultivation are environmentally safe and less capital to do so. However, it needs further experiment about dosage and kind of composted organic matter, the age of bamboo raft and other plant rotation on this raft.