Moisture conservation and fertilizer use for sustainable cotton production in the sub-humid Savanna zones of Nigeria

Abstract

In the arid and semi-arid regions, soil moisture deficiency largely limits sustainable crop production. In the Nigerian dry Savanna (Northern Guinea savanna, arid and semi-arid zones), dry spells commonly occur between June and July, often lasts beyond three weeks. Rainfall is unevenly distributed and results in insufficient soil moisture for crop production. Soils at the uplands are commonly sandy loam to loamy sand at the surface horizons, have inherently poor fertility status, poor moisture retention capacity and rapidly degrade due to sheet erosion, continuous cultivation and overgrazing. The study on cross banding of ridges to conserve moisture and use of boron in association with nitrogen, and without boron was therefore conducted in Sabon Gari Garu areas in Katsina State, in the dry savanna of Nigeria during the 2007 and 2008 cotton cropping seasons. Data obtained were statistically analyzed. Results show that treatment with tied ridges + NPK + boron (415.70 kg ha⁻¹ and 312.47 kg ha⁻¹ cotton in respective years) resulted in significant higher cotton lint yields in 2007 and 2008 than NPK + boron treatments (245.20 kg ha⁻¹ and 255.16 kg ha⁻¹ cotton in 2007 and 2008, respectively). Cross banding of ridges is recommended for farmers to conserve soil moisture and application of NPK + boron fertilizers.

Keywords:

• sustainable agriculture
• soil moisture stress
• water conservation
• sub-humid Savanna
• soil fertility management

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge thankfully the financial and logistic support granted by the International Fertilizer Development corporation – Africa Lome and the Institute for Agricultural Research (IAR/ABU), Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria Nigeria towards the study and this publication.