Perceived Evidences of Climate Change and Effects on Smallholders Farming Practices in Edo North, Edo State, Nigeria

Abstract

Food security and sustainable supply remain a big challenge against achieving key SDGs, and this is especially the case in most Sub-Saharan African countries where extreme poverty, social unrest, terrorism, youth unemployment and corruption remain a huge setback to economic development. Climate change is further compounding these problems, with huge implications for the agricultural sector which has over 70% of the population depending on it for livelihood. Smallholder farmers are even worst hit, owing to their limited capital, lack of modern agricultural technology, little or no government supports etc. This study is therefore aimed to investigate the dimensions of changes in the climatic pattern of communities in Edo north, and the associated effects on smallholder farming operations. Primary data were collected through questionnaires, interviews and focused group discussions with sampled crop famers (SCF). The study found that majority of SCF were migrant farmers (44.6 %), while the indigenous farmers only constituted about 33.4 %. In terms of type of crop(s) cultivated in the study area, 145 (28.4 %) of the respondents cultivated multiple crops (tuber/ plantain/ cereal/ vegetables), 26.6 % exclusively cultivated tuber crops (cassava/yam/ cocoyam/ potato), while 16.5 %) solely cultivated plantain/banana. Other farm types include cereal crop (rice/bean/maize/corn) 14.4 %, and vegetables (pumpkin/tomato/melon/okra) 9.5 %. Most notable evidence of climate change was extreme hot temperature in the day (n 29.5%, while extreme cold at night was 23.5%. Similarly, 19.0% of sampled crop farmers also viewed increased rainfall as notable evidence of climate change in the study area, while another 13.5% linked strong wind to climate change. Others notable evidences were flooding 9.5% and delayed, decreased and erratic rainfall with a total percentage of 5.0%. In terms of effects on farming operations, impact on fertilizer and manure application emerged as mostly affected with a weighted mean score (WMS) of 3.05. This was followed by effect on spraying of farm against pest and disease control with a WMS of 2.92, while weeding of farm and late planting ranked 3rd (WMS = 2.87). In terms of impact on the farming families, reduction in farm income and frequent washing away of valuable soil nutrient were mostly reported with the WMS of 3.56. This was followed by poor quality and quantity of yield/output (WMS = 3.42; rank = 2nd).