Abstract
Climate change influences crop yield vis-a-vis crop production to a greater extent in countries like Nigeria where agriculture depends largely on natural circumstances. This study assesses the effect of observed climatic variables (rainfall, temperature and relative humidity) on yield of major crops which are divided into two groups, tuber crops (cassava and yam) and fruits (pepper and tomatoes) in Ondo State Nigeria. Crop yield and climatic data were obtained from Ondo State Agricultural Development Project (ADP), Ondo State for a period of nineteen years (1996 - 2014). These data were analyzed using SPSS 16.0 and Microsoft Excel in order to evaluate the effect of climate on the yield on reference crops in Ondo State, Nigeria. Multiple regression, trend analysis, and ANOVA techniques were used to analyze the data. The study showed that the rainfall range for the nineteen years was 1013.08 mm; temperature range was 5.14°C and relative humidity range was 11.55%. Variations in rainfall, temperature and relative humidity were found to have effects on cassava, yam, pepper and tomatoes yield by 20.7, 18.6, 26.8 and 15.5%, respectively. It was then recommended among other things that the extension agents should work with the Nigeria meteorological agency to advice farmers in the State in order to use cropping calendar in accordance with the weather forecast since temperature, rainfall and relative humidity had little effect on cassava, yam, pepper and tomatoes yield in Ondo State. Key words: Climate, rainfall, temperature, relative humidity, Ondo State.
Highlights
Agriculture is the growing, processing and distribution of food and other products through intensive plant cultivation and animal husbandry in and around cities
In order to ensure food security in south-western Nigeria, a region that feeds more than 45% of the nation's population, there are needs to examine the trends in the climate of this region, the purpose of this research is to determine the coefficient of variation in climatic variables and examine the effect of climatic variables on crop yield in Ondo State, south west, Nigeria
Year 1996 recorded the lowest Cassava yield of 16.25 mt/ha; the year 1997 recorded an increase in yield from the 16.25 to 17.50 mt/ha, mean annual rainfall increase from 1834.63 mm to 2011.14 mm, relative humidity reduced from 76.46 to 73.43%, minimum temperature increased from 19.63 to 20.14°C and maximum temperature reduced from 32.75 to 29.08°C
Summary
Agriculture is the growing, processing and distribution of food and other products through intensive plant cultivation and animal husbandry in and around cities. It includes green belts around cities, farming at the city edge, vegetable plots in community gardens and food production in thousands of vacant inner - city lots (CFSCNAAC, 2003). The sub-humid climatic zone of Africa permits the cultivation of a variety of crops in a pattern that emerged in earlier centuries in response to local conditions (Onyekwelu et al, 2006, Ziervogel et al, 2008). It follows that any change in climate may have effect in agricultural sector in particular and other socio-economic activities in general
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