Journal des sciences de la Terre et du changement climatique

Abstrait

Analyzing the Impacts of on Onset, Length of Growing Period and Dry Spell Length on Chickpea Production in Adaa District (East Showa Zone) of Ethiopia

Mengesha Urgaya Lemma*, Araya Alemie, Solomon Habtu and Chere Lemma

Agriculture is essential for Ethiopian economy while the concerns of climate change impact on agriculture in developing countries have been increasing and this impact could influence agriculture production in a variety of ways. Rising in temperature and rainfall fluctuation patterns, including the amount of rainfall could adversely affect the productivity of crops. Among the various crops cultivated in the area chickpea productivity is paramount importance. Hence, the study is aimed at characterizing the climate of the study area and its impact on chickpea production. Accordingly, for the purpose of the study, climate, soil and chickpea experimental data (Arerti variety) were collected from Debrezeit Agricultural Research Center. Whereas Mann-Kendall test and Sen’s slope estimator, INISTAT+v.3.37 and Excel 2013 were used for analyzing rainfall and temperature variability including trends. Cropwat 8.0 was used to compute chickpea water requirement. The analysis results showed that the mean annual minimum and maximum temperature were 110°C and 260°C, respectively. While the mean annual total rainfall was about 830 mm with the growing period ranging from 99 to 215 days. The variability in start of the season for the stations was relatively high as compared to the end of the season. Crop water requirement of chickpea doesn’t vary by planting date in the study area and the total water requirement indicated on ranged between 340.6 mm and 346.7 mm during the growing season. Whereas, the effective rainfall which is the most determinant factor for yield is very variable by planting dates.