Abayomi Eruola, Julius Awomeso, Gideon Ufogbune, Hassan Kassim and Akeem Makinde
Understanding the advantage of crop water use in mixed crops over sole cropping is vital in developing optimum water management crop production in the tropical wet-and-dry climate. This study investigated water supply potential for the cultivation of kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus L.) – maize (Zea mays L.) intercrop in of South-western Nigeria. The phenological stages of each of the crops formed the basis for the investigation. The experiment comprises of two varieties of kenaf (Tainung 1 and Ifeken400), one variety of maize (DMR-LSR-Y) and two planting season (early and late). Selected moisture indices were measured daily and processed into ten-day (dekad) average for the 2007 and 2008 cropping seasons following FAO. Descriptive statistics was employed for the analysis. Relating the effective water availability to the indices of moisture adequacy for the growth of the crop in sole and intercrop, it was found that the agro-climatic moisture indices were optimum during the moisture sensitive stages particularly for early season planting irrespective of cropping pattern. A comparison of maize and kenaf production in sole or intercrop in the study area showed that early planting promotes the growth, development and yield irrespective of planting season. Mono-cropping maize and kenaf performed better than intercropping. However, water supply in rain-fed agriculture was confirmed to be efficient for maize/ kenaf intercrop in South-western Nigeria.
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