ESTIMATION OF SOIL MOISTURE DEff CIT IN GUINEA SAVANNAH REGION USING·WATER BALANCE APPROACH, GIDAN KWANO AS A CASE STUDY

Abstract

, ABSTRACT This project work presents estimation of soil moisture deficit in Guinea Savannah region using water balance approach. The analysis was carried out on a measured datas collected from Nigeria Meteorological Study Centre, Minna, Station for one year, (2010). From the calculations, the maximum and minimum value of evapotranspiration occur in the month of March and august at G.789111mday" and 2.418mm day" I and the maximum and minimum moisture content to be at 32.2111111 and 5.9mm which occur in the month of October and May with an SMD demand of J 7.5mlll respectively. Therefore the effect of soil moisture deficit on plant growth is enormous as it is known that the higher soil moisture deficit means there is no much available moisture for the plants which then results to wilting and stunted growth in the case shallow rooted plants such as (pepper okro and tomatoes etc) while too much water will also make tuber crops such as (yam, cassava potato etc) to experience rotting due to excess precipitation, which lower the soil moisture deficit and capillary rise beyond the root zone plant thereby leading to water-logging. It was noticed that the events that followed the excessive or significant rainfall decreased the value ofsoil moisture deficit as noticed in the months of July and August.