Impacts of Climate Variability on Maize Yields in Bahati Sub-County, Kenya

This study analyzed the effects of climate variability on maize yields among farm holders in Bahati Sub-County, Kenya for the period 1985 to 2015. The climate parameters used included rainfall onset, rainfall cessations, seasonal rain, annual rainfall, annual mean temperature, maximum and minimum temperature. Maize yield data for Bahati Sub-County was collected from the Ministry of Agriculture, Tegemeo Institute and Nakuru County Agricultural Office, while data on rainfall and temperature was collected from Nakuru Meteorological Station. The strength and direction of the relationship between rainfall, temperature and maize yield was determined using SPSS software version 23 (correlation analysis) and Microsoft Office Excel 2010 to generate frequency tables, pie charts, graphs and moving averages. The findings revealed that there is a significant, positive and strong relationship between rainfall trend and maize yield (r= 0.741, p = 0.000). The study also revealed that there is a significant, moderate and negative linear relationship between maximum temperature and maize yield (r= -0.510, p= 0.03). However, the study findings also revealed that the relationship between minimum temperature and maize yield had an insignificant, weak and negative relationship (r= -0.166, p= 0.372)