Assessment of Strength of Association Between Climatic Parameters and Some Selected Crops in Funtua, Katsina State, Nigeria

Abstract

Agricultural production in Nigeria and particularly Funtua Local Government Area of Katsina State is rain-fed hence it is dependent on weather. This situation threatens food security and leads to poverty, among the farmers in the study area. This eventually leads to shortage of food, increasing importation of “common” foodstuffs especially sorghum, millet and maize, hike in the prices of foodstuffs and mal nutrition in the study area. The aim of this paper is to assess the strength of association between climatic parameters and some selected food crops in Funtua, Katsina State, Nigeria. The methods adopted in this study were descriptive statistics and Spearman’s rank correlation. The study revealed that there is correlation coefficient of 1.00 which indicates a sharp increase in the degree of association between sorghum yield, maize yield and annual rainfall and this shows that, the higher the annual rainfall, the higher the crop yields. Correlation coefficient of 0.65 for sorghum and 0.97 for maize indicates an increase in the degree of association between maximum temperature and annual food crop precisely maize and sorghum. The study also revealed that the ratio between the variance estimates (F) was 1.75 and since the calculated F of 1.75 was lower than 3.24, so the predictors (relative humidity, maximum temperature and annual rainfall) does not significantly differ as an independent variables, and any of them can be chosen as the independent variable for the crop yields in the study area. Its therefore recommended that with the increasing rate of erratic rainfall patterns, drought and desertification, drought resistant and short duration high yielding crops should be developed through research efforts and made available to farmers in the study area and the State in general