BENEFICIAL AND HARMFUL ARTHROPODS DIVERSITY OF SEMI ORGANIC CHILI IN SANDY SOIL OF PALANGKA RAYA CITY

Abstract

Palangka Raya's city has marginal sandy soil for agricultural development. Chili are commonly grown in this area, but they face challenges due to pest attacks. The use of pesticides to control pests has a detrimental effect on the beneficial arthropod population. To address this issue, it is necessary to adopt semi-organic farming systems. The research aims to determine the population, diversity, and dominance. The research was conducted from October 2020 to January 2021 at the Laboratory of the Department of Agronomy, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Palangka Raya. We employed 3 trapping techniques, namely Sweep net, Pitfall trap, and Light trap on sandy areas covering approximately 600 m2. Chili plants were treated using organic and inorganic fertilizers, trichocompost, and bioinsecticide. The results of the study showed that beneficial arthropods caught were 453 individuals during six periods of observation, with Predators (67.82%), Parasitoids (10.60%), Pollinators (1.46%), and Detritivores (2.93%), respectively. The harmful arthropods caught were 94 individuals (17.18%). Chili plant diversity index (H') ranged from low to high category (H' = 0.6-2.48), while the dominance index (D) was classified as low to high (D = 0.1-1.73). The evenness index (E) of the community fluctuated before stabilizing (E = 0.52-1.65). Arthropods family abundance (N1) was classified as less to sufficient (N1 = 1-1.67).

Keywords

• diversity
• beneficial arthropods
• pest arthropods
• chili