Impact Factor (2025): 6.9
DOI Prefix: 10.47001/IRJIET
Sorghum is
a drought resistant crop, able to withstand periods of high temperature and
even water logging, thereby making it a good staple food in food – insecure
regions in the world. This study assesses the effect of inter-annual variation
of climate on sorghum production in the semi-arid region of Nigeria using
regression analysis. Sorghum yield data collected from the archives of the
Institute of Agricultural Research, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria for the
period of 1989 – 2019 was correlated with climate parameters from the same
source. The data were analysed to show the weather pattern of each weather parameter
viz –a- viz Temperature (maximum and Minimum), Relative humidity (morning and
afternoon) and Rainfall to assess their corresponding effects and importance to
Sorghum yield in Samaru, Zaria, Nigeria. The result from the regression
analysis shows that rainfall is decreasing at the rate of 0.77mm/year in this
station and more drought period were observed between 1982 and 2001. The
pattern of Rainfall is unimodal, an implication of only one rainfall peak. This
is a vantage for the production of Sorghum because of its adaptive nature to
both drought and water logging. There is an increasing yield as rainfall
decreases. However, between 2010 and 2013, yield increases as rainfall
increases. The trend of other climatic parameters was also considered. The results
imply that all the parameters under study are very relevant to the yield of
sorghum at every stage of growth and hence, should be well studied over other
locations for more productivity.
Country : Nigeria
IRJIET, Volume 5, Issue 9, September 2021 pp. 51-66