Performance of Bondoyudo Mayang Irrigation System in East Java, Indonesia <Articles>

The objective of this research is to evaluate the performance of Bondoyudo Mayang irrigation system, by conducting analysis on the water balance to determine the water productivity. The research was conducted in the Bondoyudo Mayang Irrigation area in 2006, which consists of three regencies in East Java Province; Lumajang, Probolinggo and Jember Regencies. The water insufficiency for several months of the year forced the rice farmers to change the wetland rice to dryland crops. If this was to continue, agriculture land-uses would change either temporarily or permanently.

The result showed that the irrigation performance in the study area was rather poor, mostly due to the lack of maintenance of the network and poor irrigation management. Consequently, there was a significant reduction in crop yield due to water irrigation insufficiencies each year. Improving the management of water distribution, network systems irrigation and farmer's skill in soil preparation are the possible solutions to improve the old irrigation system.