Water Use and Seasonal Differences in Maize Performance in the Transitional Humid Zone of Nigeria Monica E. Idinoba Philip A. Idinoba Adeniyi S. Gbadegesin Shrikant S. Jagtap ABSTRACT. Maize (Zea mays) was grown in four consecutive (wet and dry) seasons in two years at the experimental fields of the Interna- tional Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Ibadan, Nigeria. Water use of maize and yield responses in the humid forest-Savanna transition zone of Nigeria were assessed using drainage lysimeters which were irrigated daily depending on the evaporative demand of the atmosphere. Results show significant differences (p < 0.01) in water use, yields and yield components between the seasons and the years. Seasonal averages of water used from sowing to harvest were 363 mm and 271 mm for the wet and dry seasons, respectively. These are equivalent to mean water use ef- ficiency (WUE) of 122 g and 176 g of water per gram dry matter for the wet and dry seasons, respectively. Significant yield differences were re- Monica E. Idinoba and Philip A. Idinoba are affiliated with the West African Rice De- velopment Association, c/o Glory Tabernacle Ministry, P.O. Box 20711 (UI), Ibadan, Nigeria, West Africa. Adeniyi S. Gbadegesin is affiliated with the Department of Geography, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria. Shrikant S. Jagtap is affiliated with the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA. Address correspondence to: Monica E. Idinoba (E-mail: i.monica@cgiar.org or monicaoye@yahoo.com). The authors are grateful to the training unit of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, Nigeria for funding this research. Journal of Sustainable Agriculture, Vol. 24(3) 2004 http://www.haworthpress.com/web/JSA  2004 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved. Digital Object Identifier: 10.1300/J064v24n03_04 37 Please note that this electronic prepublication galley may contain typographical errors and may be missing artwork, such as charts, photographs, etc. Pagination in this version will differ from the published version.