Comparative Evaluations of Surface and Subsurface Water for Irrigation Purposes at Middle Lower Niger, Central Nigeria: Implications for Agricultural Production
Olagoke Oloruntoba, Abubakar Yunusa & Ethan Saul
National Cereals Research Institute, Badeggi, P.M.B. 8 Bida, Niger State,
Email: tobaolagoke@gmail.com
Corresponding author: Olagoke Oloruntoba
ABSTRACT
Comparative evaluation of surface and subsurface water quality was carried out in some selected lowland of middle lower River Nigerviz: Badeggi and Edozighi irrigation Schemes located at Lat, 9o06 N, Long.5o 59’ E; and Lat.9o0.525’N, Long 5o5.900’E respectively, in the Southern Guinea Savanna of Nigeria to assess the quality of irrigation waters. The results obtained from the chemical analysis of the waters, have shown that the total dissolved solids (TDS) for the surface water is on the average of 270.55 mg/l. The sub-surface water had higher concentration of dissolved solids with average values of303.15 mg/l. The sodium adsorption ratio (SAR) which relates the sodium content with the dicationic-cations calcium and magnesium ranged between 37.05 and 20.85 mg/l for surface water and 54.05 and 22.25 mg/l for sub-surface water respectively. The results indicate that the quality of both surface water and sub-surface is classified as good according to FAO standard.
Keyword: Comparative evaluation, surface, subsurface water, classification
