Perception and adaptation of crop farmers to climate change in Niger State Nigeria.

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper analyzed farmers’ perception and examined the vulnerability and adaptation of crop farmers to climate change in Niger State, Nigeria. Primary data were used in the study obtained through a cross sectional survey. Questionnaire was used to elicit relevant information from the respondents. Data collection lasted for two months, that is from September 2014 to November 2014. Multistage sampling technique was used to elicit data from 280 respondents. Data analysis was done using descriptive statistics. Ordered Probit and Multinomial Regression logit models. Results showed that all the respondents were aware of climate change phenomenon. 49.7% of the sampled population were vulnerable at high and very high levels of vulnerability while 50.3% were vulnerable at low and very low levels of vulnerability. Adaptation measures used include early planting, weeding, tillage operation, changing timing of land preparation and harvesting dates, conservation, migration and wind breaks. The results show that access to credit, household size, membership of association, farm size, number of hazards and topography were significant factors affecting vulnerability to climate change. Moreover, increased use of agrochemical, household size, hired labour education and extension visits were factor that significantly influenced the choice of adaptation measures. The study concluded that farmers in the study area were employing one or more adaptation techniques to mitigate the adverse effect of climate change. They were vulnerable to climate change because they were lacking socio-economic attributes that could make them less vulnerable to climate change. The study recommends making available credit facilities to farmers in order to enhance their farm incomes to enable them employ adaptive measures that could be effective in alleviating negative impacts of climate so as to reduce their vulnerability to climate change. The need also for the farmers to belong to organized farmer groups to increase their chances of access to agricultural credit is imminent.