ON THE SUITABILITY ASSESSMENT OF THE FOREST AND SAVANNA ECOLOGICAL ZONES OF SOUTH-WESTERN NIGERIA FOR MAIZE PRODUCTION

A combined ecological and economic approach was used to assess and compare the productivity of 44 maize farms located in two different ecological zones in south-western Nigeria. First, the technique of investigation involved, the identification of the ecological parameters in particular soils and climatic variables that significantly influence the crop's production in the two zones; secondly, it involves the estimation of the costs and revenues accruing from cultivating a hectare of land for maize production for each ecological zone. Using a rating procedure developed in this study, four parameters were used to assess the sampled maize farms in the two ecological zones: nitrogen, phosphorus, number of rainy days and Gross Margin Analysis. The results of the assessment indicate that it is more profitable to produce maize in the savanna zone than the forest zone. In addition, all the farms sampled in the savanna zone but only 65% of the farms in the forest zone were rated fairly suitable to very suitable for maize production. © 1990.