Assessing the Monthly Variation of Reference Evapotranspiration of Nsukka, Enugu State, Nigeria

The application of suitable water quantity to the crops in irrigation farming is very important for effective crop yields as less or more than the required quantity of water when applied will affect the crop output negatively. The objective of this work was to determine the monthly reference Evapotranspiration of Nsukka, Enugu state of Nigeria, as well as how its variation is affected by temperature change. This work made use of Hargreaves-Samani model of evapotranspiration prediction, using the data of minimum and maximum temperature obtained from NASA's earthdata database. It was shown from the results that highest evapotranspirationoccured in February, and lowest occurred in July. It was further observed that reference Evapotranspiration of the study area has a positive correlation coefficient of 0.9927 with the maximum temperature and a negative correlation coefficient of -0.1879 with the minimum temperature. Conclusively, it was stated that reference evapotranspiration was higher in the study area in dry season than in rainy season, and that it was directly proportional to the maximum temperature and inversely to the minimum temperature. Oyibo Muazu | Abdullahi Ayegba"Assessing the Monthly Variation of Reference Evapotranspiration of Nsukka, Enugu State, Nigeria" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-2 | Issue-3 , April 2018, URL: http://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd11409.pdf http://www.ijtsrd.com/engineering/electronics-and-communication-engineering/11409/assessing-the-monthly-variation-of-reference-evapotranspiration-of-nsukka-enugu-state-nigeria/oyibo-muazu