Assessing the impact of intra-seasonal rainfall characteristics on groundnut production in Serere district

Abstract

Rainfall is an important variable that affects the production of most crops including groundnut. Intraseasonal rainfall characteristics such as onset, cessation, length of the growing season, and length of dry spells are very important for the growth of the crop at different stages. This study therefore aimed at assessing the impact of these intraseasonal rainfall characteristics on groundnut production in Serere district. The specific objectives of this study were to; determine the trends in groundnut production in Serere district, determine the trends of intra-seasonal rainfall characteristics during the groundnut growing season in Serere district and examine the effect of intra-seasonal rainfall characteristics on the groundnut production in Serere district. The study used both annual and seasonal groundnut production data for the years 2012 to 2020 for Serere district as well as rainfall data in the same period. The onset dates, cessation dates, length of the dry spells, and growing season length were obtained using the Climate Data Tools program. The result showed that the annual and the MAM season groundnut production had a downward trend throughout the years while the SON season had an upward trend. The average for onset, cessation and length of dry spells for the MAM season was while for the SON was. Groundnut production in Serere district showed a positive correlation with all the intraseasonal characteristics of rainfall.