Performance of Sumur Gendong (SeDrainPond) Technology on Harvesting Water and Sediment with Respect to Effective Rainy Days

Abstract

Land degradation and climate change are reducing soil fertility and water availability in agricultural areas. So, agricultural production is reduced, which is detrimental to food security and farmers’ livelihoods. These problems must be mitigated together with farmers. The farmers-based technology called Sumur Gendong (SeDrainPond) technology has been used and its performance has been analysed, in order to give farmers a basis to determine farming strategy. The performance of Sumur Gendong in harvesting water and sediments in relation to effective rainy days has been studied for this paper. The fertility of the harvested sediment has been also analysed, and a suggestion has been proposed to improve it. The study has been carried out using a combination of field measurements and laboratory analyses on 10 (ten) test ponds with average diameter 1 m and depth between 2 and 2.5 m on 5 hectares of paddies. The volume of water harvested from the pond annually has been 567 m3 and the one of harvested sediment has been 344 kg. The fertility of the harvested sediment has been moderate across the study area, on the basis of the combined soil chemical properties