Analysis of rainfall trend and variability in Ebonyi state, South Eastern Nigeria

Rainfall pattern, trend and variability, are major indicators used in evaluating any investigation that relate to agriculture particularly because of the crucial role it plays in agricultural productivity.The purpose of this research is basically to examine the extent of variation in rainfall pattern of the study area.This is necessary because the study area is majorly an agrarian community where rainfall agriculture is mainly practiced.Rainfall totals for every month covering a period of 31 years were collected from the Nigeria meteorological agency of Nigeria and analysed for variation, fluctuation using mean, moving average, standard deviation, coefficient of variation and linear regression while Kruskal wallis H test was used in testing the hypothesis.Result indicated that there have been statistically significant increases in rainfall totals in the study area.Analysis indicates that rainfall possesses a positive trend and as such the area is getting wetter by 8.9318mm per annual.In conclusion, agriculture can be improved upon towards creating more jobs for the youths in order to reduce unemployment, achieve food security and ultimately enhance agricultural sustainability.The implication of this increasing rainfall trend for farmers as well as the government is the opportunity to increase crop production and animal rearing since more rainfall can be gathered.