Evapotranspiration, Soil and Water Quality Implications on Upland Rice Production

In light of plausible impacts of climate change with respect to food insecurity due to growing shortage of water, an attempt was made to establish direct relationship between crop yield, irrigation and evapotranspiration. This is with respect of determining safe consumptive water use for upland rice in Nigeria. Also, effect of two very important factors, soil and water qualities on rice production were considered in relation to rice productivity. Some parameters common to the two factors analyzed included, the pH, Sodium, Iron, Potassium, Copper, Manganese and Zinc while the remaining water and soil properties were investigated using standard procedures. The relationships between crop yield and Evapotranspiration (ET) as well as yield and applied irrigation water was R2 = 0.97. The result of ANOVA showed significant differences in grain yield and crop ET between treatments (p<0.05). Majority of the soil and water parameters considered were within permissible limits for rice production in Nigeria. Traceable quantities of pollution were noticed in both soil and water samples but were insufficient to prevent promotion of optimum rice crop growth under existing conditions. Good soil and water qualities with proper irrigation scheduling could sufficiently result in rice grain yield increase under standard environmental conditions.