Abstract
Although agriculture in Nigeria is the major source of income for about 70% of the active population, the impact of agrarian infrastructure on boosting productivity and supporting livelihoods has increased. Climate change and the increasing trend of climate-related events in Nigeria challenge both the stability of agrarian infrastructure and livelihood systems. Based on case studies of two local communities in Plateau state in Nigeria, this paper utilizes a range of perceptions to examine the impacts of climate-related events on agrarian infrastructures and how agrarian livelihood systems are, in turn, affected. Data are obtained from a questionnaire survey (n = 175 farmers) and semi-structured interviews (n = 14 key informants). The study identifies local indicators of climate change, high risks climate events and the components of agrarian infrastructures that are at risk from climate events. Findings reveal that, changes in rainfall and temperature patterns increase the probability of floods and droughts. They also reveal that, although locational differences account for the high impact of floods on road transport systems and droughts on irrigation infrastructures, both have a chain of negative effects on agricultural activities, economic activities and livelihood systems. A binomial logistic regression model is used to predict the perceived impact levels of floods and droughts, while an in-depth analysis is utilized to corroborate the quantitative results. The paper further stresses the need to strengthen the institutional capacity for risk reduction through the provision of resilient infrastructures, as the poor conditions of agrarian infrastructure were identified as dominant factors on the high impact levels.
Highlights
IntroductionA major driver of natural hazards, is a global threat to human and economic development
Climate change, a major driver of natural hazards, is a global threat to human and economic development
Damage to the infrastructure system by adverse climate change will have implications for individual elements and on a wider scale, thereby affecting human and economic development efforts. This highlights the urgent need to reduce the risk from uncertainties due to climate change; the aim of this paper is to examine the impacts of climate-related events on agrarian infrastructure and its cascading effect on agrarian livelihood systems
Summary
A major driver of natural hazards, is a global threat to human and economic development. Projections suggest that the persistent alteration of the climate system is likely to be prolonged due to increasing variations in the average weather conditions which will increase the occurrences of climate-related events, such as floods and droughts (Dai and Zhao 2017). This is expected to further challenge global economies; studies in various sectors, including transport (Nemry and Demirel 2012; Neumann et al 2015), power.
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