Abstract
The study analyzed the impacts of climate change among rural farmers in Imo State, Nigeria. Specifically, it ascertained the socioeconomic characteristics of the farmers, their level of awareness of climate change, the perceived causes of climate change and the perceived impacts of climate change. Multistage sampling technique was used to select a sample of 100 farmers for the study. Data were collected using structured questionnaire. The data were analyzed using frequency counts, percentages, mean score and bar charts. Results showed that a greater proportion (40.6%) of the respondents knew a little about climate change. Also, it showed that gas flaring (M = 2.07, S.D = 1.94), violation of local customs (M = 2.01, S.D = 1.83) and natural phenomenon (M = 2.00, S.D = 1.83) were perceived as causes of climate change. The result further showed that declining crop yields (49.0%), declining soil fertility (17.0%), drought events (17.0%) and increased heat wave (15.0%) were the perceived impacts of climate change on agriculture in the study area. It was recommended that relevant, timely and up-to-date information on climate change should be provided to the farmers to boost their adaptive capacity to climate change. Key words: Climate change, impacts, rural farmers, Imo State, Nigeria.
Highlights
Climate change is one of the most topical environmental issues of this century
According to IPCC (2007) any event is considered as climate change if it has occurred consistently for at least a period of one decade
Rural farmers have observed the occurrence of climate change
Summary
Climate change refers to any change in climate over time, whether due to natural variability or as a result of human activity (IPCC, 2007). It could be defined as any significant change in measures of climate lasting for an extended period. This include changes in average weather conditions on earth, such as change in average global temperature, as well as changes in how frequently regions experience heat, droughts, storms, floods and other extreme events
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