Judul: Autekologi tanaman lada (Piper nigrum L.) di Provinsi Lampung: karakteristik lingkungan dan faktor yang mempengaruhi produktivitas
Abstrak: Understanding the characteristic of crop plant species is a pivotal step to achieve the cultivation success on agricultural practices. Each plant requires a specific environmental condition for its growth and maturation. In case of pepper plant, environmental factors such as altitude and rainfall considerably affect on the growth as well as productivity of this plant. As one of pepper production center in Indonesia, Lampung Province has diversity of pepper varieties and different environmental characteristic with gradient of altitude and precipitation. Based on Dinas Perkebunan (Plantation Office) of Lampung Province, productivity of pepper in Lampung tends to decrease recently. The average pepper production was 651 kg/ha in 2005, 478 kg/ha in 2007 and 461 kg/ha in 2011. Those, well-knowledge about autecology of pepper plant in Lampung Province become an important concern to solve the problems on pepper cultivation. The main objective of this research was to study the autecology of pepper plant in Lampung Province. The research covered specific objectives were (i) to obtain the information about phenology of pepper plant in Lampung Province, (ii) to determine the recent environmental condition of pepper plant habitat including biotic and abiotic factors, and (iii) to investigate the environmental factors that affect the productivity of pepper plant in Lampung Province. Study about phenology of pepper plant in Lampung was conducted through direct observation on selected plot in two areas i.e. (i) Kebun Percobaan Balittri, Cahaya Negeri Village, Subdistrict of Abung Barat, North Lampung and (ii) Kebun Percobaan BPTP, Negara Ratu Village, Subdistrict of Natar, South Lampung. Whereas, study about of environmental characteristics and its factors effect on the productivity of pepper plant was conducted in four districts with different altitude i.e. (i) Sekincau Subdistrict, West Lampung, (ii) Abung Barat Subdistrict, North Lampung, (iii) Margatiga Subdistrict, East Lampung, and (iv) Natar Subdistrict, South Lampung. Observation and measurement were conducted to obtain the data for environmental factors, variability and productivity of pepper plant. Analysis of soil chemistry was performed to determine the condition of soil fertility on each location. To study the biotic component, insects were explored as study case to investigate the relationship between insect and pepper plant. Then, statistical analyses were performed to study the relationship between environmental factors including abiotic and biotic factors and the productivity of pepper in Lampung Province. The result showed that the phenology of pepper plant in Lampung is started from the seed or cutting, seedling, immature, and adult. In the mature period, pepper plant having an annual cycle between vegetative and generative phase. Vegetative phase is started around September to December, while generative phase is from January to August. Flowering characteristic of pepper plant varieties i.e. Natar 1 and Natar 2 have seasonal flowering time which is early flowering time follow the rainy season in the local region. In Abung Barat, variety of Natar 1 has higher variability and productivity than Natar 2. In contrast, variability and productivity of Natar 2 was higher than Natar 1 in Natar Subdistrict. The difference of environmental condition might affect the productivity of pepper plant in Lampung Province. Environmental characteristic of pepper plant habitat
Keyword: autecology, environmental factor, Lampung Province, phenology, Piper nigrum