Effect of Climatic Variables on the Growth Stages of Sugarcane at Babare Ganye 1 Ward Area of Ganye Local Government, Adamawa State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study examines the effect of climatic variables on the growth stages of sugarcane in Ganye local government area of Adamawa state Nigeria. To achieve this 50 by 100 meter of land was established in Babare area of Ganye, the land was plough using traditional hoe, 14 row and column ridges were raised. The sugarcane seed was planted in between the ridges, data on the height (cm), number of leaves and number of stems was taking on a selected stand of sugarcane crop on each row on monthly basis. The experiment was conducted for the period of eleven months from September 25^th, 2022 to August 25^th, 2023. Data on sugarcane were collected from the practical farm in Ganye local government area and climatic data were collected from Adamawa state college of agriculture Ganye meteorological weather station. Data obtained were analyzed using correlation coefficient to determine the relationship between the climatic elements and the growth stages of sugarcane. The result shows that rainfall and relative humidity shows highly significant relationship at 0-810 and 0.878 respectively at each growing stage of sugarcane, while temperature and wind at 0.431 and 0.466 shows weaker relationship and also radiation shows negative relationship. Variation of climatic elements on the growth of sugarcane  reveals that low rainfall and moisture shows shorter stems and wilting of leaves, while high temperature and radiation shows slim, brownish color and wilting of sugarcane crops and also high wind bend and brakes sugarcane stand. Farmers are advice to adhere to adequate and reliable knowledge of weather and climate, farmers should also plant different varieties not adopting to single variety, farmers should also provide another means of supplying water to their crops not relaying of rainfall and also government should provide soft loans and incentives at appropriate times.