An efficient assessment of rice varieties in tropical regions is crucial for selecting cultivars suited to unique environmental conditions. This study explores machine learning algorithms that leverage multispectral sensor data from UAVs to evaluate rice varieties. It focuses on three paddy rice types at different ages (six, nine, and twelve weeks after planting), analyzing data from four spectral bands and vegetation indices using various algorithms for classification. The results show that the neural network (NN) algorithm is superior, achieving an area under the curve value of 0.804. The twelfth week post-planting yielded the most accurate results, with green reflectance the dominant predictor, surpassing the traditional vegetation indices. This study demonstrates the rapid and effective classification of rice varieties using UAV-based multispectral sensors and NN algorithms to enhance agricultural practices and global food security.

The Cucurbitaceae has been known to many farmers as a plant that has beneficial for agriculture industries. For decades plants that belong to Cucurbitaceae such as cucumber (Cucumis sativus), watermelon (Citrullus lanatus), and melon (Cucumis melo) has been cultivated to meet consumer needs. In Indonesia, a new variety of melon has been discovered namely apple cucumber. This new variety has blurred the difference between melon and cucumber due to the vegetative resemblance. This research was conducted to clarify the different characters and to study the morpho-agronomic characteristic in qualitative and quantitative-based on IPGRI descriptors. Important and significant diagnostic characters were observed to developed good cultivar in quality and quantity. 16 qualitative and 15 quantitative characters from 120 characters of apple cucumber were observed to determine the specific characters for good cultivar. Principal Analysis Component (PCA) using Python was used to showed discriminative character and also to distinguished apple cucumber to melon and cucumber based on 120 characters of apple cucumber. Morphological differences existing among melon, cucumber, watermelon, and apple cucumber, in particular, are presented.

The Multi-Canopy Rice Cultivation (MCRC) system is a promising cultivation technique that adopts the advantages of cultivar mixture with different canopy vertical dispersion. This system may increase productivity by optimizing vertical space and more efficient input resources. This study aimed to assess the genotype derived from the IPB breeding line for suitability in the MCRC system by combining the short and the tall rice plants. Seed material used four genotypes of the short plants and four genotypes of the tall plants as promising breeding lines of IPB University and three released varieties as the control for productivity evaluation. The resultsshowed morphological and physiological performance as good as in the mono-genotype on the variables of the flag leaf shape, plant height, Soil Plant Analysis Development (SPAD)value, and Crop Growth Rate (CGR). Some genotype combinations achieved productivity higher than 1.00 Land Equivalent Ratio (LER) compared to the mono-genotype, indicating that increasing rice productivity is possible using the MCRC system. The result indicates that the suitable combination of the short-tall genotypes in the MCRC system may be considered to deal with the criteria of plant height, grain yield, and LER in the MCRC, as well as grain index and related grain quality.

Uji Pertumbuhan dan Hasil Tanaman Timun Apel (Cucumis Sp.) dengan Penggunaan Mulsa Plastik dan Mulsa Alami

The multi-canopy rice cultivation system modifies the cultivar mixture using two genotypes with different stem lengths to create different heights of the plant canopy that may optimize vertical growth and harvesting space. This study aims to investigate the effect of a multi-canopy rice cultivation system on the morpho-physiological characteristics of several genotype combinations. The research was conducted in the plastic house of the IPB University experimental station, Dramaga, Bogor, West Java, Indonesia. Two genotypes of the short plants and two tall plants as IPB University breeding lines were evaluated using a randomized complete block design. The combination of the short and the tall genotypes was transplanted on the same hill to create the multi-canopy system. The results of the multi-canopy rice cultivation system produced a number of tillers, panicle number, and percentage of productive tillers showed no difference with mono-genotype hills. Meanwhile, the genotype’s performance in the multi-canopy system for stem length, plant height, panicle length, panicle density, photosynthesis rate, and SPAD value is as good as the mono-genotype system. These results indicated no decrease in morpho-physiological characters’ performance in each genotype grown as a combination in multi-canopy. Each genotype can utilize resource inputs at different canopy positions to minimize competition.

Cucurbitaceae is one of the largest family in Angiosperm in which the most member of this family is important fruit crops in Indonesia such as Cucumber, Melon, Watermelon, and Apple Cucumber. In particular, Apple Cucumber, currently attracts attention to many researchers due to its phylogeneticand taxonomic problem. In term of its appearance, the fruit looks like an apple but the taste is melon. The purpose of this study was to elucidatephylogenetic relationship between Apple Cucumber and other species of Cucurbitaceae based on variation of DNA sequences derived from internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region. As many as six individuals of Apple Cucumber collected from Karawang, Jember, and Aceh were examined. The ITS sequences of some species of family Cucurbitaceae were retrieved from GenBank, and put them in the analysis. Phylogenetic analysis based on parsimony method with using Begoniaas outgroup reveals that Apple Cucumber are nested in the same clade as Melon (Cucumis melo) with high bootstrap value (100%), suggesting that Apple Cucumber is under the same species as Melon. However, on the basis of morphological characters of fruit, apple cucumber is different with that of Melon. This considerably first phylogenetics treatment provides fundamental knowledge for establishing a subspecies of Melon.