Abstract
The study assessed prioritized climate smart agricultural (CSA) practices and technologies of household farmers in Southeast, Nigeria. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to isolate 326 household farmers who participated on the study. Data collection was done using research instrument (questionnaire). Both descriptive and inferential statistics were employed for data analysis. Results indicated that majority of the respondents were females, had secondary education, and had household size of 9 persons with a mean age of 48 years and 19 years of farming experience. Temperature variation (3.85), increase in number of sunny days (3.50), increase in amount of rainfall (3.10), variation in rainfall pattern (3.56), decrease in total rainfall (3.21), increase in frequency of heavy rains (2.85), etc were seriously perceived as climate change effects in the area. Again, various prioritized CSA practices and technologies such as growing a single crop, using a mixture of appropriately chosen genotypes of a given species (46.6%), use of quality seeds and planting materials of well-adapted crops and varieties (77.9%), crop rotation and diversity (41.1%) integrated pest management (47.5%), improved water use and management (26.4%), etc. were adopted by the farmers in mitigating climate change effects. Climate threats identified in the area include, decrease in overall productivity due to increased extreme weather events (0.97), decrease in crop production due to changes in average rainfall (0.94), decrease crop production due to increase in temperatures and rainfall variability (0.79), rapid migration of some pests and diseases (0.72), etc. Lack of access to up to-date information (2.88), access to micro-finance and insurance (2.57), access to agricultural input and output markets (2.14), etc. constrained the adoption of CSA practices. Age, education, occupation, years in farming experience further influenced the adoption of CSA practices and technologies. Policy motions in propagating climate change awareness through the mass media were recommended.
Highlights
The extreme effect of climate change is becoming clearer with the consistent disruption in the pattern of some climate variables such as rainfall, temperature, etc
The first step indicated that perception of climate change in the area was significant; implying that any increase in climate change perception will directly influence the adoption of climate smart agricultural (CSA) practices and technologies
Perception of climate change and climate threat were significant at 1% probability level, implying that any increase in both variables will lead to a significant increase in the adoption of CSA practices and technologies
Summary
The extreme effect of climate change is becoming clearer with the consistent disruption in the pattern of some climate variables such as rainfall, temperature, etc. Over the years human activities had widely exacerbated climate change in diverse ways causing innumerable disruptions of agricultural activities. But this region is being threatened by climate change occasioned with erosion and flooding as major visible impacts. This is as a result of variations in rainfall patterns, temperature, relative humidity, wind, frost, etc. Are some of the notable drivers of climate change impacts on agriculture in Southern Nigeria. Uncertainty about the scale, dimension and nature of the impacts, which affects farmers’ planning and investment decisions could be the reason of climate change persistence in the southeast zone. Adverse impacts of climate change experienced in the area include disruption of economies, source of livelihoods and the ecosystems on which all living things depend [3]
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