ABSTRACT
This study assessed the climate change mitigating practices among arable crop farmers in Edo central zone of Edo state. One hundred arable crop farmers were selected through a multi-stage process using simple random sampling technique. Data collection was carried out with well structured questionnaire and was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistical tools. Findings show that majority( 62.7%) of the respondents were males about 42% fell within the age bracket of 41-50 years of age, 84% were married, 62% had primary education and 41.3% had farm size of 2.1-4.0ha.The study also showed that majority of the farmers were aware of the causes and manifestations of climate change. All the respondents used manuring regularly as an adaptive measure while all of them perceived afforestation, manuring, timely harvesting and mixed cropping as most effective measures of adaptation. The result also showed that there was no significant relationship between respondents socio-economic characteristics and awareness of climate change. There was significant relationship between the respondents’ annual income (r=-0.194, P=0.017) and the perceived effect of climate change on arable crops. There was significant relationship between respondents’ farm size (r=-0.253, P=0.002) and annual income (r=-0.179, P=0.029) and the perceived effectiveness of climate change mitigation and adaptation measures . The major constraints to the use of adaptive measures were lack of finance, lack of access to improved crop varieties, inability to access available information, low level of technology and difficulty in getting accurate result. It was recommended that the state government should make funds through rural agricultural credit scheme to arable farmers in Edo central zone and ensure the funds are well disbursed to enhance their access to production inputs to mitigate climate change effects.
CHAPTER ONE
- INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Agriculture is a major sector of the Nigerian economy, providing employment for about 70% of the population. The agricultural sector is the mainstay of the economy though her development funds at present derive more from Petroleum oil and Gas exploration (Ifeanyi-obi et al., 2012). It is the principal source of food and livelihood especially in rural areas.
Agriculture in Nigeria as in most other developing countries is dominated by small scale farmers (Oladeebo, 2004). Small holder farmers constitute 80% of the farming population in the country (Awoke and Okorji, 2004). These farmers produce on subsistence level with the objectives of satisfying household food needs and little surplus for sale (Awoke et al., 2004).
Although the agricultural sector is being transformed by commercialization at the small, medium and large scale enterprise levels, the country is still faced with a number of constraints. According to International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) (2008), the constraints include poor agricultural pricing and low fertilizer use, low access to agricultural credit, land tenure insecurity and land degradation, poverty and gender issues, low and unstable investment in agricultural research as well as poor market access and marketing efficiency. In addition to these, climate and weather parameters have consistently been changing.
Climate refers to the average or typical weather conditions observed over a long period of time (usually over 30 years) for a give area (Spencer, 2009). The classical period is 30 years as defined by the World Metrological Organization (WMO). Climate encompasses the statistics of temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, precipitation, atmospheric partial count and other metrological elemental measurement in a given region. On the other hand, climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over period ranging from decades to million of years (Wikipedia, 2010).
Climate change and Agriculture are inter-related processes, both of which take place on a global scale. Global warming is projected to have significant impacts on conditions affecting Agriculture. These conditions include temperature, carbon dioxide, glacial run off, precipitation and their interactions are of significant importance. These changes in climate have had negative effects on agriculture over the years with arable crops not left out. Between 1996 and 2003, world grain production has stabilized over 1.8 billion tones. From 2000 to 2003, grain stocks have been dropping, resulting in a global grain harvest that was short of consumption by 93 million of tons in 2003 (Wikipedia, 2010). There has also been a reduction in harvest of these crops.
In recent times, farmers have devised several methods and indigenous technologies to mitigate the effect of climate change. In south-western Nigeria, Research
have shown various adaptive measures (Apata et al, 2009). The major adaptation technologies and innovators identified include irrigation (Fadama), Afforestation, use of drought tolerant crop varieties and organic practices in form of manuring, mulching and fallowing as well as planting- date adjustment and timely harvesting of crops. However, these measures are not free of constraint. The constraints observed included lack of finance, low level of awareness about climate change, low level of technology, high illiteracy level and difficulty in getting accurate result (Apata et al., 2009).
1.2 Â Â Â Â Â STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
