THE EFFECT OF CLIMATE ON YAM PRODUCTION IN KWARA STATE, NIGERIA
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Date
2010
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Department of Geography and Environmental Management, University of Ilorin, Nigeria
Abstract
Weather extremes constitute formidable constraints to yam cropping in Nigeria. For instance, Bello (1983) emphasized the negative roles played by flooding on fadama yam farmlands. Thus, this paper examines the impact of climate on yam by correlating climatic variables of rainfall, relative humidity, number of rain days, maximum and minimum temperature, evaporation and sunshine hours with yam production. Both meteorological data and yam production data were collected for forty years (1961-2000). The climate data were obtained from the National Meteorological archive Oshodi, Lagos; while the information on yam yield were obtained from the Bureau of Statistics, Ilorin. The result of the analysis showed that rainfall amount is the most crucial climatic parameter for yam production in Kwara State.Farmers in Kwara State were encouraged to focus attention more on controlling other factors to suit any option climate present.
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Keywords
Yam, climate, rainfall, relative humidity, rain days, temperature