Analysis of the Potential Use of the Midrib of Sago Plants as an Emitter for Drip Irrigation Suhardi (a*), Ahmad Munir (a), Abdul Azis (a), Husnul Mubarak (a), Imastira (b)
a) Department of Agricultural Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, Hasanuddin University, Makassar, 90245. Indonesia.
*suhardi[at]unhas.ac.id
b) Undergraduate Students at Department of Agricultural Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, Hasanuddin University, Makassar, 90245. Indonesia
Abstract
Sago plants in Indonesia cover an area of 2.5 million ha or 50% of the world^s sago land area. The part of the sago plant that has not been used optimally is the midrib. The porous sago palm has the potential to be used as an emitter in drip irrigation. For this reason, research is needed that aims to determine the potential use of the midrib as an emitter of drip irrigation. Analysis of the potential of the midrib as an emitter begins with the measurement of saturated hydraulic conductivity using the falling head method. The value of the hydraulic conductivity corresponds to the emitter, then a drip irrigation test is carried out simultaneously for the three parts of the midrib with the same head pressure to determine the coefficient of variance in the three sections of the midrib. The smallest variance coefficient value indicates that the part has a higher uniformity. The results showed that the end of the midrib has a higher conductivity value than the middle and bottom. In addition, the final section has a coefficient of variance that is smaller than the middle and base sections with coefficients of variance of 26.41, 44.15 and 72.51, respectively. High uniformity at the ends due to compact aggregation. The small value of the coefficient of variation at the tip is an indicator that the tip of the sago palm midrib is the most suitable part to be used as a drip irrigation producer.
Keywords: Sago midrib- emitter- Drip irrigation- coefficient of variance
