It is shown that the nonautonomous discrete Toda equation and its Backlund transformation can be derived from the reduction of the hierarchy of the discrete KP equation and the discrete two-dimensional Toda equation. Some explicit examples of the determinant solutions of the nonautonomous discrete Toda equation including the Askey-Wilson polynomial are presented. Finally we discuss the relationship between the nonautonomous discrete Toda system and the nonautonomous discrete Lotka-Volterra equation.