A study was carried out to evaluate the suitability of some Peri-urban soils in Lagos state for arable crop production. Six pedons classified as Alagba (Rhodic Hapludult), Dodokindo (Plinthic Kandiudult), Idesan (Typic Endoaquept), Owode (Typic Kandiudult), Atan (Fluvaquentic Endoaquept) and Pakoto (Plinthic Kandiudult) Series identified at two study sites located at Igbokuta and Ibomwon communities in Ikorodu and Epe Local Government Areas of Lagos state were evaluated. The land use potentials for maize, cassava and leafy vegetables (Amaranth family) were assessed following the conventional non-parametric and the parametric (square root) methods of land suitability evaluation according to the revised FAO framework. All the pedons were rated as marginally suitable (S3) for maize except Idesan and Owode Series that made up 2.53% and 34.74% of the total area respectively, which were rated moderately suitable (S2). With respect to cassava and leafy vegetables, all the pedons were rated marginally suitable (S3) except Atan Series occupying 19.71 % of the total area, that was rated non-suitable (N1). The major limitations to sustainable crop production in all pedons were low nutrient supply (N, K, P and cations) coupled with high soil acidity (pH of between 3.9 and 5.8). In addition to this, Idesan and Atan series also have waterlogging problem hence may not be used for cultivating the afore-mentioned crops, but could be used for swamp rice. With appropriate liming, soil fertility management and proper drainage, most of the pedons may be rated as being moderately suitable (S2) for the cultivation of these crops. As a peri-urban area with high demand for agricultural products, year-round cropping with irrigation facilities is quite promising in most of the pedons studied.

No abstract

Sugarcane is an energy crop with great economic potentials. Information on soil evaluation for sugarcane in central Nigeria is very scanty. This study was carried out to evaluate the suitability of some soils of the floodplains in central Nigeria for sugarcane cultivation. A semi-detailed soil survey was carried out on 18,500 hectares of land straddling the floodplains of Rivers Niger and Benue in Korton-Karfe Local Government Area of Kogi State. Land resource survey was carried out using a 500 m×500 m grid pattern. Identified soil types were further examined with standard soil profiles. Samples were collected from the soil genetic horizons as well as surface (0–30 cm) soils at selected sampling points for fertility analysis. Parametric and non-parametric suitability evaluation methods were used to relate land qualities with land use requirements for commercial sugarcane cultivation. Relationships between evaluation methods were assessed using Spearman’s rank correlation coefficients. Nine soil mapping units were identified in the study areas which were mainly Inceptisols (55.4%) and Alfisols (22.5%) which correlates with Fluvisols (40.4%), Cambisols (15.1%) and Lixisols (22.5%) in the World Reference Base (WRB) classification system. The evaluation methods used revealed that 0%, 4.95%, 49.48%, 23.55% of the soils were highly suitable (S1), moderately suitable (S2), marginally suitable (S3) and not suitable (N) for sugarcane cultivation, respectively. Potentially, 0%, 9.52%, 44.91% and 23.55% of the soils were found to be highly suitable (S1), moderately suitable (S2), marginally suitable (S3) and not suitable (N) for sugarcane cultivation, respectively. The soils were strongly limited by low soil nutrient availability, soil acidity and flood hazard. Soil management practices such as application of organic manures, fertiliser and liming could be adopted to ameliorate the soil acidity and supply deficient nutrients while land development strategies such as drainage, flood control and possibly sub-soiling would mitigate other major limitations to sugarcane cultivation.