Assessment of Yam Yield Performance Under Drip Irrigation Using Sack Farming Technology
Ate JT*, Malum JF, Udochukwu MO, Ijadunola JA, Oladimeji ST and Gbabe EK
Abstract
This research was carried out at the Organic farm of Federal College of Agriculture Moor Plantation Ibadan, Nigeria with the aim of investigating the prospects of yam farming under drip irrigation in that agro-climatic region. The farm site was cleared and made into ten (10) rows of six (6) heaps each, that were formed by filling soil into perforated 50kg cement bags. Three species of yam namely; “Hembankwase”, “Faketsa”, and “Sudan” (a variety of water yam) code named A, B and C respectively were planted each per row, and each treated to irrigation water application at an interval of three days. This was replicated three times with 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 liters, as the control plot had a mixture of all the three varieties and was treated to 0.5 litre daily water application. The planted yam sets weighing averagely 0.3 kg each were mulched after planting to reduce excessive heat and evaporation, and staked to support the vines after emergence.
At harvest, record of yam yield in terms of number and weight of tubers harvested were taken. These collected data were subjected to statistical analysis of variance and results obtained indicated no significant difference in the yield of the three varieties of yams across the three levels of water application in terms of number of tubers (F= 2.118, p>0.05) and weight of tubers (F= 1.082, p>0.05). Inspite of these out comes, a critical examination of the mean scores of the weight and number of tubers produced by the yams showed that, all the three varieties recorded their optimum performance at the 1.0 litre level of
water application; indicating that the best irrigation water application level at the chosen irrigation interval of 3 days was 1.0 litre. This clearly shows that with appropriate level of irrigation application to support rainfall even in the given climatic region, yam performance on the field would be better enhanced. Therefore, drip irrigation with alternative production techniques like the type adopted in this research should be considered as a powerful intervention to support yam production in Nigeria
