THE ENGINEERING OF LIGHT DISTRIBUTION ENHANCEMENT THROUGH PRUNING MANAGEMENT TOWARDS THE PRODUCTION OF COCOA TREE (THEOBROMA CACAO L.) IN SOPPENG REGENCY, SOUTH SULAWESI OF INDONESIA

Cocoa (Theobroma cacao L.) is a mainstay crop in South Sulawesi and Soppeng Regency is one of the cocoa producing regions that contribute to the cocoa industry in Indonesia. This research was conducted in Salaonro Village, Lilirilau Sub-District, Soppeng Regency, South Sulawesi from March to November 2018, using a two-factor factorial design. The first factor is the type of shade loving plants consisting of: New Guinea Teak (Vitex coffasus) (N1) Gliricidia (Gliricidia sepium) (N2) and White Teak (Tectona grandis L.) (N3), while the second factor is pruning, consisting of (P0) without pruning, (P1) one pruning in a month, (P2) one pruning in two months. The results showed that the shade loving plant species had an effect to the weather aspect, which was only on the intensity of sunlight above the canopy at 24 msp, namely the white teak (N3). The average pruning time had an effect on the weather aspect at 16 msp and 20 msp and one pruning in two months (P2) had a greater effect than one pruning in a month (P1) as well as no pruning (P0). The shade loving plant species had an effect on the physiological aspect namely leaf moisture. The highest leaf moisture value was N1>N3>N2, respectively, while pruning time had an effect on leaf temperature P2>P1>P0. For the agronomic aspects, both shade loving trees and pruning time had an effect on the number of fruits N3>N2>N1 and P2>P1>P0 and for fresh weight of and dry weight of 100 seeds also had an effect. The one pruning in two months (P2) had a positive effect compared to other treatments, namely (P1) and (P0). The interaction between shade loving tree species and pruning time on the weather aspect was soil temperature at 16 msp where the treatment (N3P2) of white teak with one pruning in two months had the lowest soil temperature value (26.83) compared to other treatment interactions. Furthermore, interaction between shade loving tree species and pruning time on physiological aspects, namely the rate of photosynthesis, the highest photosynthesis rate in the treatment was N3P0> N2P1> N2P2, respectively.