Effects of Rainfall and Temperature Variability on Yam Production in Lafia Local Government Area, Nasarawa State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study assesses the effects of rainfall and temperature variability on yam production in lafia Local Government Area of Nasarawa State, Nigeria. The research data were collected from secondary data from the existed literatures such as textbooks, journals, articles, seminar papers, encyclopedia which are most pertinent to this study. The rainfall and temperature data of the fourteen years (2001-2014) were collected from synoptic weather station of NIMET archives Lafia sub station where rain gauge and thermometer are used. The Statistics Package for Social Science (SPSS) software was used for the analysis. The derivatives of these data were computed and used for further analysis such as average of number of rainy and temperature variations of months of years under study. The yam data was collected in metric tons as unit of measurement per year for the fourteen years under study which shows that there is an upward increase trend in yam production in the area of study over the time span in gradual and steady state which has a variation in production, across the years under consideration of 0.843%. It is also indicated the effect of 0.186 (19%) of the variation in yam production was explained by the variation in rainfall, maximum and minimum temperature between the study periods. It’s further stated that the magnitude of effect by the predictors (rainfall, minimum and maximum temperature) on the dependent variable (yam) varies. Rainfall had a non-significant (P-value > 0.05) effect of -0.269 and a coefficient value of -0.438. This by extension implies that for every unit (mm) decrease in rainfall over the period of time under investigation, yam production decreases by -0.438mt. The relationship between rainfall, temperature and yam using Pearson correlation shows that a weak negative relationship (-0.041) between rainfall and yam yield, a weak positive relationship (0.160) between maximum temperature and yam yield and there is a weak positive relationship (0.322) between minimum temperature and yam yield. The study identified increased production with non-significant positive effect of rainfall, maximum and minimum temperature on yam production. Since the study focused on the effects of rainfall and temperature variability on yam production in Lafia Local Government Area of Nasarawa state, without taking into consideration of other parameters like land use patterns and since rainfall and temperature are not the only parameters that affects yam production. the following recommendations are made: Agricultural Extension Officers (AEOs) should be deployed to guide farmers through routine visits, regular access to weather information to farmers by NIMET, application of irrigation  for growing of crops,  study of land use pattern should be considered and there is need for modern farm inputs and price control by government and Non Governmental organization.

Keywords: Effects, Rainfall, Temperature, Variability, Yam Production

DOI: 10.7176/JEES/9-3-13

Publication date:March 31^st 2019