Weather constraints on the smallholder cropping system of southeastern Nigeria: A case study of two villages in Anambra State
✍ Scribed by Felix I. Nweke
- Publisher
- Elsevier Science
- Year
- 1981
- Weight
- 388 KB
- Volume
- 23
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0002-1571
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✦ Synopsis
Nweke, F.I., 1981. Weather constraints on the smallholder cropping system of southeastern Nigeria: a case study of two villages in Anambra State. Agric. Meteorol.,.
Annual climatic data (Federal Republic of Nigeria) would suggest that southeastern Nigeria should present few weather difficulties for intensive cropping. This paper is based on a cropping systems survey (Nweke and Winch, 1980) of two villages in Anambra State, which reveals that month by month distributions of rainfall(solar radiation and relative humidity, and deviations from the normal distribution of rainfall, constitute a constraint on the expansion of agricultural production in the area, and hence that supplementary aids to rectify such weather deficiencies are necessary in order to expand crop production.
CLIMATIC DATA FOR THE AREA
The Nigerian Civil War (1967--70) interrupted routine collection of timeseries data, including weather records, in all of southeastern Nigeria. The location with the longest weather record since the War is Enugu (06°28'N, 07°33'E, 137.3 m above mean sea level), for which there are daily records since 1971.
In Enugu there are two distinct seasons, the dry season from November to April and the rainy season from May to October which is interrupted by a drier spell in July--August (Fig. 1). In the rainy season, the rainfall is adequate for most crops grown in the area. However, the rainy season is associated with high humidity and low solar radiation (Fig. 2) with the consequence that available moisture at this period is not used to the best advantage by farm crops. In the dry season, humidity is low and solar radiation relatively high, but it is so dry that most crops would not grow without irrigation water. Moreover, the timing of the rainy season with respect to the beginning and end of the rains, as well as the timing Of the trough, is irregular (Fig. 1).