Rice Farmers’ Adaptation Strategies to Climate Change in Minna and Environs, Nigeria

Abstract

Rice production in Minna and Nigeria at large is largely rain-fed, which implies that it depends completely on the weather and all the uncertainties that arise as a result of the changing climate. Climate change threatens the production of rice in Minna like it does to every aspect of agriculture in Nigeria. With the current Federal Government ban on the importation of rice to the country through land border and the ever increasing demand for the product, it is necessary for farmers to find most appropriate ways to adapt to the impact of climate change to ensure sustainable production. It is against this background that this study was restricted to determining the perceived causes of climate change and adaptation strategies among rice farmers in some selected rice producing settlements in Minna environs including Chanchaga, Garatu, Birgi and Beji because they produce larger amount of rice than the other settlements in Minna. Simple linear regression was used to analyze a 30 years (1986-2015) climatic parameters data including rainfall and temperature data to understand the changes that have taken place over the years. In addition to the secondary data, a structured questionnaire was used to gather information on adaptation strategies from the respondents. The study shows that the distribution of rainfall and temperature in the study area has not been uniform. They vary from one month to another and annually. The study also revealed that the farmers were using modern adaptation options such as planting early maturing seeds (93%) and the application of herbicides (96%) to complement indigenous adaptation strategies such as seeking divine intervention (75%) and changing planting dates (72%). Lack of adequate knowledge on how to adapt was the biggest challenge the farmers were facing in trying adapt to climate change. It is recommended that government at all levels should improve in the dissemination of information to the farmers by improving the capacity of the extension workers with better understanding of climate change and adaptation options. Their coverage area should also be widened so as to reach more rice farmers.