EFFECTS OF TILLAGE METHODS AND TILLAGE DEPTHS ON PRODUCTIVITY OF GINGER IN TWO AGRO ECOLOGICAL ZONES OF NIGERIA

A field study carried out to determine appropriate tillage methods and tillage depth for ginger production in two agro ecological zones of Nigeria is reported. The ecological zones are derived Savannah and the Rain Forest. Three tillage treatments namely, ploughing once, ploughing and harrowing once and no tillage were conducted at depths of 0cm (for the no till), 5 cm, 10 cm and 15 cm. The fields were mapped using the Latin Squared (LS) design arrangement. The tillage operation in the derive Savannah zone was carried out using a 41 kW Ford tractor, 1 meter width disc plough and a three meter width disc harrow. In the Rain forest zone, a 65 kW tractor MF make, 1meter width disc plough and a three meter width disc harrow were used. Ginger rhizomes, UGC 1 variety, were used. The seeds were conditioned by cutting into small sets of about 25 kg each. The cuttings were done in such a way that each set had at least one to two viable buds. The sets were carefully placed inside holes of 5 cm deep at a spacing of 15 cm by 20 cm (row by column) and covered with soil. There were 240 seedlings per plot. Altogether, the plant population per site was 11,760. Forty eight stands were selected at random and carefully harvested in each plot 9 months after planting. The harvested products were weighed using electronic weighing machine. Results show that in the two zones, ploughing at 15 cm depth and then harrowing gave the highest yield and the least yield was obtained in the plot treated with no tillage. The field data were subjected to statistical analysis using the ANOVA model. Results show significant difference between the parameters at 1% level of significance. The means of the treatments were compared using the Least Significant Difference (LSD) test. Results show that there are differences between the means of the treatments for all the parameters in the two zones.