Examination of Rainfall Trend Over the North-Eastern Part of Nigeria
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- May 4, 2024
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| JAFE Vol. 10(2): 23-34, 2023 | |
| Examination of Rainfall Trend Over the North-Eastern Part of Nigeria | |
| Audu, E.B., Audu, H.O., Azare, I.M., Shehu, A.U. and Ike, F. | |
| This study examined the trends of rainfall over the North-Eastern part of Nigeria from 1985 and 2020 (36 years). The data used were the annual empirical rainfall records for Yola, Gombe, Maiduguri, Jalingo, Bauchi and Potiskum obtained from the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet), Abuja. Mann-Kendall (M-K) tests together with Sen’s Slope estimator were employed for the analysis. Results on M-K test revealed negative significant monotonic trend over time in Yola of -0.0508 with P-value of 0.6728; while upward trend occurred over Bauchi, 0.54 with P-value of 3.9339e-09; Maiduguri, 0.473 with P-value of 5.2214e-05; Gombe, 0.197 with P-value of 0.0939; Jalingo, 0.244 with P-value of 0.0372 and Potiskum, 0.0508 with P-value of 0.6728. The results on Sen’s Slope estimator also established substantial increases in the annual rainfall over Maiduguri (10.6); Bauchi (21.9966); Gombe (1.6754); Jalingo (8.7904) and Potiskum (1.0971); while Yola (-1.0062) had a negative magnitude. It was therefore concluded that the annual rainfall over a greater part of North-eastern Nigeria consistently increased over time. Hence, it is recommended that, government policies related to water resources, agriculture and food security should be based on a recent rainfall trend in the area; efficient water management strategies and techniques must be put in place to ensure sustainability of rain water especially in those areas with no significant increase in annual rainfall trend; government policies and programmes such as water projects, afforestation, river basin development, dam construction and irrigation practices should be executed in area; in those areas with no monotonic increment of rainfall trend; adaptive measures such as adjusting farming calendars, rainwater harvesting and irrigated agriculture should be put in place; and farmers should adopt crops that are drought-resistant and early-maturing. | |
| Keywords: | Agriculture, drought resistance crops, food security, irrigation, rainfall |
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