Perceived effects of climate adaptation strategies among yam farmers in Niger State, Nigeria

Abstract

Climate change is one of the issues bordering stake holder all over the world most especially as it affects agricultural activities. The study was conducted in order to have insight on the various adaptation strategies yam farmers use to curtail the effect of climate change as regards to yam production in Niger state with the specific objectives of the study was to assess the socio-economic characteristics of yam farmers. Climate related constraints, the adaptation strategies employed by farmers, and level of yam farmers’ level of knowledge on climate change. A four-stage random sampling procedure was employed to choose 112 participants. first stage, zone II was purposively selected (due to large scale production of yam in the area under review). In the second stage, two local governments Area. (Bosso and Paiko) were chosen out of the nine local governments. In the third stage, two communities where randomly picked and in the fourth stage, sampling of yam farmers was done using yamane’s formular. The data were collected through interview descriptive statistics (frequency, distribution, and percentage) Probit regression model were used to analyse data collected. Results from the analysis showed that male farmers were the majority in the study area with an average age of 44 years. Married farmers account 74.0% of all the farmers, with a mean household of 7persons. A good number of the farmers have adequate information on the reasons for climate change. These reasons include deforestation (100%), applications of surplus subsistence on the farm like agrochemicals (100%). Furthermore, the major perceived effects of climate change are yam spoilage (X ̅ =2.82) and high rate of weed growth (X ̅ =2.77). Various strategies by yam farmers include purchase of agricultural insurance (X ̅ =3.13), weather resistant variety (X ̅ =2.82), Mulching (2.75), other strategies include of intercropping (X ̅ =2.70). factors affecting the rate of climate change include age (.03093), size of land (.0031627), Access to information (1.284348), Training (.1205591).Major constraints yam farmers face in adopting climate change, inaccessibility to credit (X ̅ =2.74), lack of information (X ̅ =2.72), shortage of labour (X ̅ =2.72). the study recommends increase training of the farmers cause of climate change, how to reduce the effects of climate change, environmental protection and how to enhance continuous production of yam in the study area.