Abstract
The study examined the effect of climatic variations influencing sweet potato production in Cross River State, Nigeria in the 2018 cropping season. The study described the socio-economic characteristics of the sweet potato farmers in the study area, identify major climatic factors influencing sweet potato production in the study area, assessed the perceptions of sweet potato farmers on the effects of climatic variations on sweet potato production, and identified measures adopted by sweet potato farmers to improve on its production in the study area. Multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select 200 respondents for the study. Structured questionnaire was used to collect primary data from the farmers. Frequency tables, percentages, means, chi-square (X2) and the likert scale were used to achieve the study objectives. Findings revealed that 62% of the respondents were males, 67% of them were between 21-50 years of age while 61% are married. It also indicated that, 54% had a household size of 1-5 persons, 76% had formal education and 63% of them had sweet potato farming experience of between 6-15 years. On climate variation influence, the study revealed that 76% of the respondents agreed that they perceived climate variation effects on their sweet potato farms. The chi-square results showed that there were perceived significant (p<0.05) climate influence on sweet potato production in the study area. The major climatic elements observed to express serious constraints in sweet potato production in the area were rainfall, temperature, sunshine, relative humidity and flooding as these variables created problems ranging from irregular rainfall pattern, rotting of sweet potato tubers, low soil moisture, early or late cessation of rainfall, water-logging, flooding and erosion. Remedial measures on climate variation influences include; inter-crop sweet potato with other crops, plant sweet potato on ridges and on big mounds, plant early maturity sweet potato and disease resistant varieties. The study recommends that the farmers should adopt cultural farming practices like mulching to conserve the soil moisture, plant tolerant and improved resistant varieties of sweet potato to drought while irrigation scheme for water supply be provided to ensure water supply to the crop at appropriate time.
Highlights
IntroductionSweet Potato (Ipomoea batatas.) is a dicotyledonous crop that grows well in tropical andsubtropical areas and even in some temperatezones of the developing world
Background of the Studyand Problem StatementSweet Potato (Ipomoea batatas.) is a dicotyledonous crop that grows well in tropical andsubtropical areas and even in some temperatezones of the developing world
It reveals that the variable of gender shows that 62% of the respondents were males while 38% were females. This result indicates that sweet potato production in the study area is not gender bias, meaning that both males and females are involved in the production of sweet potato in the area
Summary
Sweet Potato (Ipomoea batatas.) is a dicotyledonous crop that grows well in tropical andsubtropical areas and even in some temperatezones of the developing world. The studies [2, 3] noted that the crop grows well between the temperature range of 15°C to 35°C; with an optimum of 24°C, anannual rainfall of 750– 1000 mm, with a minimum of 500 mm in the growingseason. In Africa, sweet potato is increasingly becoming an important economic crop among the rural poor even though it is traditionally cultivated. The crop is widely grown as an important staple food in many African countries including Gambia, Ghana and Nigeria where it is grown by peasant and small holder farmers [4]. The wide range of ecological zones across Cross River state allows for a variety of food and cash crops to be produced [5]. Food production has not kept pace with population increase resulting to a wide gap between food supply and demand
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