AGRONOMIC TRAITS OF LOCAL WETLAND RICE VARIETIES IN JAMBI PROVINCE

Indonesia’s swamplands are among areas earmarked for future agricultural development. As a type of wet lands, swamplands are inundated and have soil properties that are uniquely different from other agroecosystems. In Indonesia, some of these areas a r e currently u s e d fo r r i c e cultivation of the country’s very diverse genetic resources of local rice varieties. Most o f t h e farmers continue to plant and cultivate the local rice swampland varieties because of the abilities to adapt to extreme environments. This study on the agronomic traits of the local swampland rice varieties was carried out to evaluate their agronomic characters and identify varieties having superior quality traits. The research was carried out from April to October 2016 using a single plot method at the Rantau Kapas Mudo Village, Batanghari Regency, Jambi Province. Eleven (11) rice varieties were planted in 10 x 5 m single plots, with a spacing of 25 x 25 cm and 1 m distance between plots. These 11 genetic resources of the local swampland rice varieties, include the Serendah Halus, Rimbun Daun, Karya, Serendah Bawang, Sereh Aek, Botol, Pontianak, Semut, Dawi, Ketan Itam and DI. The observed characters consisted of the plant height at harvest, number of productive tillers, age of harvest, number of grains per panicle, number of filled grains per panicle, number of empty grains per panicle, weight of 1,000 grains, seed shape and the production volume. There were differences among the local swampland rice varieties with the highest production volume of 3.32 tonnes/ha obtained from the Rimbun Daun variety, followed by 2.86 tonnes/ha from the Dawi variety. These two varieties had shown potential to become the leading regional swampland rice varieties.