Effect of Water Depth on Four Varieties of Rice in Jangwa Flood Plains, Awe Local Government Area of Nassarawa State, Nigeria

A pedological study was carried out on some low-lying land area referred to as Jangwa flood plains with a view to characterized and evaluate the effect of three (3) flood levels namely: toeslope, medium and levee flood levels on growth and yield of four (4) varieties of rice (Faro 44 maturing, FARO 52 and L-19 (FARO 60), medium maturing and late FARO 15 maturing) grown in the area.Field trialsand crop trials were carried out for 2015 and 2016 cropping season. Profile pits were sunk, giving a total of 6 profile pits. Soil samples were collected from different horizons, air dried crushed and sieved (d<2mm) for laboratory physical and chemical analyses. The soils were deep (101cm – 170cm) and well drained. poorly to very poorly drained. The soils were fine textured and strongly to moderately acidic and slightly alkaline in reaction (PH 5.10 – 7.15). The percentage sand fraction ranged from 44.8% to 83.1%; silt 5.4% to 9.4% and clay 9.4% to 46.7%. They had low to moderate organic carbon (0.41% to 3.52%); total N (0.04% to 0.11%); available P (1.64mglkg-1 to 3.72mg/kg-1), total exchangeable bases (2.85cmol/kg-1 to 7.97cmol/kg-1), CEC (4.10cmol/kg-1 to 7.98cmol/kg-1), base saturation (65% to 97.5%) and Fe2+ (1.10 to 2.11). Soils of the three flood levels (toeslope or deep swamp, medium or lower slope, levee or shallow swamp) were rated highly to suitable (S1) because of the soils ability to retain water during the growth period with the favourable physical and chemical characteristics such as climate, slope, water levels, PH and texture. From the three levels of water used for the test crops, FARO 44 gave the highest yield (6.19 to 6.66tlha) at leveeflood levels (shallow) but submerged in medium and toeslope flood levels. FARO 52, FARO 15, L-19 (FARO 60) grows best under medium and toeslope flood levels with yield (4.96 -5.91) which is within the expected range.