The Effect of Soil Types on the Growth Rate of Yam Seedlings Inferred from 2-D Electrical Resistivity Tomography

Abstract

The impact of soil types and characteristics on the growth rateofyam seedlings has been presented. Yam seedlings were planted in two columns consisting of six different soil types and soil electrical resistivity variations due to variabilities in soil properties were measured to monitor growth rates in the different soil types for a period of 8 weeks using 2D electrical resistivity tomography (ERT). Result shows high rate of growth for organic rich and well-structured soils than organic deficient and clayish soils. This is attributed to structure, moisture content and nutrient supply of the soil type to crop growth.2D resistivity inverse sections reveal that column 1 exhibit higher resistivity anomalies than column 2 in the study, which is attributed to varying waterholding capacity of the different soil types in each column. Comparison of the growth rate of the yam seedlings and 2D inverse sections revealed that areas with high growth rates correspond to zones of relatively high values of electricalresistivity and low values of resistivity for areas of diminished crop growth. These results reveal that crop growth and yield could be predicted on the basis of electrical resistivity study and therefore, electrical resistivity technique can be adopted in precision farming for soil management and improved crop yield in the study area.