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Tomato is an important vegetable condiment used for stew and other recipes in Nigeria. Its production in thesavanna zone of Nigeria is mainly during the dry season when it has to be fully supported by irrigation (Anon,2000). It is the most widely grown vegetable crop under irrigation but lack of water is limiting production andexpansion (Ramalan, 1994). Mulching is used principally as moisture is conservation practice which not onlyreduces the number of irrigations required but has other benefits like increasing the root zone temperature andimproving the nutrient uptake. Performance of tomato under mulch is dependent on mulching material (Hunter etal.,1991, Amans et al., 2008,Teasdale and Abdul-Baki, 1995).The advantages of mulching were evident in notonly increasing the total fruit yield of tomato, but also in the yields of unblemished fruits(Abdul-Baki andSpence,1992, Wein et al.,1993)Water is essential for the physiological activity of tomato and in sufficient water at any stage will affect the yieldand quality but, too much water results in flooding and poor growth, while too little water reduces quality(Hanson et al., 2001). The common irrigation practice in the region is a seven-day interval (Ramalan et al.,1998), this also depends on the soil type and its moisture retention capacity, water availability and rate of airmovement. Water application by means of irrigation increased the higher marketable yields in tomato due toincrease in freshness of fruits (Imtiyaz et al., 2000). Elkner and Kanizweiski (1999) however, reported a decreasein the amounts of carbohydrates, fiber and nitrates in fruits, and increase in fruit weight compression resistanceand marketable yield in irrigated plants compared to non-irrigated ones.Tomato is a heavy feeder and nitrogen is not only essential for its growth and development, but plays animportant role in the biosynthesis of its fruit constituents; too much nitrogen has however been reported to affectthe post-harvest qualities of tomato fruits (Upendra et al., 2000). Nongkas,(1995),reported an increase in the brixand firmness of tomato with a decrease in nitrogen rates, while Parisi et al (2003), reported a high increase ofunmarketable fruit yields with nitrogen rates of 250kg/ha-1 Extraneous application of nitrogen in form offertilizer is essential in the savanna soils of Nigeria which are characterized by poor fertility and thus, low www.ccsenet.org/jas Journal of Agricultural Science Vol. 3, No. 1; March 2011Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education 267nitrogen content (Quinn, 1980). Therefore, any factor that will enhance moisture and nutrients availability andretention will certainly go a long way in improving tomato fruit quality. It is in view of the above facts that thestudy was carried out with the following objective:To assess the nutritional composition of tomato grown under mulch types, varying nitrogen rates and differentirrigation intervals
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