Prey – predator model on the interaction between the drawdown level of an aquifer and maize yield

Abstract

Groundwater is a major source of water for irrigation purposes and for sustainable growth of Agricultural development. In this paper we formulated a mathematical model to analyse the interaction between the Draw-down levels in an unconfined aquifer with maize yield, using the parameters; aquifer recharged rate α, rate of interaction between the draw down level of the aquifer and the maize yield β, draw down level of the aquifer h, and the maize yield y. The aim of this paper is to analyse the interaction between crop yield and water table and to determine the effect of draw down level on maize yield. It was observed that the maize yield depends on the recharge rate of the aquifer α and the water table level h and also as the drawdown level increases, the maize yield increases. Agriculture is of paramount importance to the development of any country, it was established in this paper that a relatively small increase of water table depth beyond the optimum increase the surface irrigation requirement for maximum crop production, water table depth shallower than optimum decreases yield.

Key words: Drawdown, recharged rate, maize yield, interaction