Inter-Annual Variation of Weather Pattern in the Semi Arid Region of Nigeria and Its Implication on Sorghum Production

Abstract

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

1 Dada B. M.2 Okogbue E. C.3 Ajayi V. O.4 Agele S. O.5 Yamusa A. M.

  1. Department of Meteorology and Climate Science, Federal University of Technology, PMB 704, Akure, Nigeria
  2. Department of Meteorology and Climate Science, Federal University of Technology, PMB 704, Akure, Nigeria
  3. Department of Meteorology and Climate Science, Federal University of Technology, PMB 704, Akure, Nigeria
  4. Department of Crop, Soil and Pest management, Federal University of Technology, PMB 704, Akure, Nigeria
  5. Meteorological Service Unit, Institute for Agricltural Research, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria

IRJIET, Volume 5, Issue 9, September 2021 pp. 51-66

doi.org/10.47001/IRJIET/2021.509008

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