Survey of Weeds on Irrigated Farmlands in Bakolori-Area of Sudan Savanna-Nigeria

Abstract

High water table combined with increase in evaporation rate has caused serious weeds infestation which has already ruined our irrigable lands. In view of this, field survey was carried out during 2014 cropping season at the Bakolori irrigation project site Talata Mafara, Nigeria with the aim of assessing weeds infestation and farmers’ perception on weed and weed management in the area. Thirty farmers were randomly selected from four sampled farms where irrigation farming is practiced. Questionnaires were administrated; in addition to oral interview. Data were collected on socioeconomic characteristics of the farmers, methods of weed control and checklist on weed abundance. Findings revealed that, majority of the farmers are between the ages of 20-45 years (56%), 77. 14% were males while 22.86% were females. About 25.71% of the farmers had Qur’an education only and 60.57% of them are operating subsistence kind of farming with just 0-10 ha as their farm size. The weed species observed were mostly annuals, constituting about 73.68% of the total weed species. Morphological classification has shown that majority of the weed species are broad leaved Acacia nilotica, Amaranthus spinosus, Boerhavia diffusa, Cassia mimosoides, Euphorbia convolvuloides, Ipomoea triloba, Mitracar pushirtus, Pennisetum hordeoides, Sennatora and Ziziphusspina) constituting 57.89%, 31.58% for grasses (Cynodon dactylon, Oryza longistaminata, Digitaria horizontali, Digitaria singuinalia, Eleusine indica, Imperata cylindrical) and 10.58% were sedges (Cyperus tuberosus and Cyprus esculentus. Majority of the respondents (51.42%) use both hand weeding and herbicide application.