The use of GIS in determining the impacts of climate variability on tuber crops yields in guinea savanna zone of Nigeria

Abstract

This study developed a Geographical Information Systems (GIS) database and mapped inter-annual changes in tuber crop yield, as a response to inter-annual rainfall variability in the Guinea Savanna ecological zone of Nigeria. It also related the spatiotemporal variability in rainfall with tuber yields. Two major tuber crops, cassava and yam were studied. Kriging and other GIS techniques were used for the spatial analysis. In addition, correlation and regression analyses were carried out on the dataset. The study revealed that rainfall varied from year to year giving a range of 1550 to 2987 mm. There were significant positive relationships between tuber yield and total rainfall (r= 0.68) at p<0.05 for cassava and r= 0.62, at p<0.05 for yam. It was concluded that geospatial techniques are powerful tools that should be explored further for realistic assessment of the effects of climate of farming activities.

Keywords: Climate variability, tuber crops, Geographical Information Systems, Nigeria

International Journal of Natural and Applied Sciences, 6(3): 346-358, 2010