Water use — Yield relations for cowpea and maize

Three cowpea varieties and one maize variety were subjected to varying irrigation treatments, ranging from water deficits to over-irrigation, on a silty loam soil classified as an Alfisol at Ile-Ife, Nigeria. There was a strong curvilinear relation between cowpea yield and evapotranspiration (R2 = 0.86 for dry matter yield and R2 = 0.87 for dry seed yield). The values of the correlation coefficient dropped to 0.62 and 0.66 for dry matter and seed yields, respectively, when a linear relation was used. When data for over-irrigated fields were omitted from the calculation, a linear relationship yielded R2 values close to unity (R2 = 0.99). Similar results were obtained on maize dry matter and grain yields in relation to evaporation.