Effects of Flood on Income Security Status among Arable Farmers in Mokwa Local Government Area of Niger State, Nigeria

Abstract

Introduction: Flood is an overflowing or eruption of a great body of water over land not usually submerged. It is an extreme weather event naturally caused by rising global temperature which results in heavy downpour, thermal expansion of the ocean and glacier melt, which in turn result in rise in sea level, thereby causing water to inundate coastal lands. Aim: The study evaluates the effects of flood on income security status among arable crops farmers in Mokwa Local Government Area of Niger State, Nigeria. Study Design: A multi-stage sampling procedure was employed in selecting respondents for the study, the data were collected from 117 arable crop farmers using structured questionnaire. Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted from the Department of Agricultural Economics and Farm Management in 2023 using Mokwa local government in Niger state, Nigeria as study area. Methodology: A multistage sampling technique was used for the selection of respondents for this study. The first stage was purposive selection of Mokwa LGAs because the LGA have always been a victim of flood experience over the years. Second stage involves random selection of three wards in the LGA. Third stage involved random selection of three villages from each ward and at the fourth stage, thirteen farming households were selected from each village. In all a total of 117 farmers were selected for this study. Data were collected from the arable crop farmer with the use of a questionnaire. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, probit regression and farm budgeting technique. Results: Results show that most (93.2%) of the farmers were male and with mean age of 38years. It was revealed that 75% of the farmers had one form of education or the other with secondary education constituting 53%. The average years of farming experience was 10 years and 65% of the farmers had 2 hectares or less of farm size. The results of the profitability showed that before flood, arable crop farmers recorded net farm income of N174,704.50 per hectare with a gross margin of N191,160.00 and after flooding the arable crop farmers recorded net farm income per hectare of N100,436.50 with gross margin of N116,892.00. which implied that arable farmers were more income secured before the flood than after the flood in the study area. The result further shows that emergency dam break (X̅ = 4.5), groundwater flooding (X̅ = 4.4) and flash Flooding(X̅ = 4.0) were the three common types of floods in the study area. The results also revealed that Gini coefficient increased from 0.43 before the flood to 0.78 after the flood incidence among arable crop farmers in the study area. More so, the findings revealed that the coefficient of total crop loss to flood, age, access to credit and marrital status had a significant relationship with income security of farmers. Conclusion: The study concludes that total crop loss to flood, access to credit and marital status had inverse relationship with income security by arable crop farmers in the study area. Deforestation, bush burning, inadequate maintenance of water ways, inadequate soil conservation measures, uncontrolled grazing and change in agricultural practices were the major factors promoting flooding in the study area. The study recommended that the government, relevant agencies and stakeholders should place concerted efforts to increase smallholder farmers’ access to credit and invest in proactive flood management systems. There is also need for social protection measures such as crop insurance schemes, farmer cooperatives, disaster relief funds, and targeted support for vulnerable groups (smallholders, women, and aged farmers) should be implemented to cushion the negative impact of floods and reduce inequality among farmers.