Impacts of weather parameters on maize production in Siaya County

Abstract

Climate variability is no longer a distant worry Kenya and this has a great influence on agriculture in general, and on maize production in particular. Current understanding on the status of the impacts of climate variability on maize production will contribute immensely to climate risk management, vulnerability reduction and enhancement of food production hence food security under a changing climate regime. It is in this regard that this study investigated the effects of climate variability on maize yields in Siaya County, whose inhabitants rely on maize as their staple food crop. The data used in this study was for a period of 22years and consists both meteorological and crop data. Meteorological data included monthly rainfall totals, monthly maximum and minimum temperatures and monthly maximum and minimum relative humidity totals for Siaya stations. Crop data consisted of seasonal yield data expressed inproductivity per unit area. Data used were first subjected to homogeneity tests; correlation analysis and finally to multiple and simple linear regression .Aregression rpodel was obtained that shows the relationship between the climatic parameters and the total yields. This model can be used to guide farmers on time of planting and timing of other agricultural practices and the expected yields given the meteorological forecast