ET Fertilizer Use-Yield Predictions Using Crop Statistical Models

As population increases, and cost of providing water and fertilizer for crop production increases, profitability in agricultural practices becomes threatened. The urgent need to understand the response of plant to water supply and fertilizer applications in order to drastically minimize wastages, using crop models becomes inevitable. Fertilizer application for crop growth cannot be overemphasized, hence, the development of crop models for the evaluation of both water-yield relationships which can also be applied for fertilizer-yield relationships is important. The objective of this study was to develop an empirical equation used in predicting fertilizer use comparable to crop models used in evaluating crop yield under deficit and adequate water supply regimes. The field experiment was carried out using Split plot design replicated thrice on a Sandy loam soil at Crop Garden of the Department of Crop protection and Environmental Biology, University of Ibadan, during the dry season of 2018 and 2019. The result showed that Yield-ET response factor was significant (R² = 0.9863), Nutrient Uptake-ET (R² = 0.4025), and Nutrient Uptake-Yield (R² = 0.5793), respectively. The ET-Yield response factor equation in crop production can be successfully used in evaluating crop Nutrient Uptake-Yield relationships.