Agricultural production/activities in Nigeria depends on rainfall, which often occurs only at certain times of the year and thus makes agriculture very susceptible to crop failure, insect infestation which causes poor returns on agricultural produce for farmers . Adoption of climate change mitigating strategies is key to coping with variations in weather conditions and the achievement of increased agricultural production and food security in Nigeria. This study analyzed the use of climatic adaptive measures among smallholder farmers in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. A multistage sampling technique was used in selecting 200 respondents in the study area. Primary data was collected using structured questionnaires and the data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and a regression model. The results showed that the most climatic adaptive methods adopted by the farmers were multiple cropping (90.0%) followed by mulching (62.50%), crop rotation (25.0%), and cover cropping (22.50%). According to the findings of the research, the farmers identified multiple cropping as the most suited climatic adaptive method to the farming system in the study area to avert the uncertainty associated with agriculture. The regression analysis showed that age, sex, marital status, household size, educational qualification, access to credit, agriculture extension contacts, membership of farmers groups/cooperatives, and monthly income influenced the adoption of the climatic adaptive measures by the smallholder farmers in the study area. Government and other agricultural stakeholders should therefore take steps to improve the climate resilience of smallholder farmers by building their capacity on multiple cropping.
The COVID-19 pandemic breakout affected every population and the agricultural sector in Nigeria was not spared from the pandemic. This was due to restrictions on mobility, interaction of people and reduced purchasing power of people. The demand and supply of the agricultural produce internally and externally were affected due to the measures adopted to contain the spread of the virus. Farmers were finding it difficult to obtain farm inputs like seedlings, fertilizers, herbicides etc. The pandemic caused the abundance and availability of these products, making it difficult for farmers to make profit. The paper examined the economic wellbeing of 400 smallholder farmers before and during the COVID-19 pandemic using descriptive statistics and regression. The result from the research indicated that COVID-19 had a positive relationship with monthly farm expenditure, monthly food expenditure, monthly utility expenditure, number of farm visits, cost of fertilizer, number of food consumption per day, quantity of produce harvested, number of farm land cultivated and number of days spent on the farm. Monthly health expenditure, family allowances and cost of transportation were negatively related with the COVID-19 pandemic. In general, there was a significant difference between the economic wellbeing of farming household before and during the covid-19 pandemic in Nigeria.
Agriculture plays an essential role in the economy of Nigeria as it provides food for the entire population of a country and also provides raw materials for the non-agriculture sectors of the economy. Nigeria's agriculture is made up of a higher percentage of smallholder farmers who are often exposed to shocks and have less capacity to combat the impact and increase the rate of recovery due to shocks. Therefore, the strengths and weaknesses of farmers' knowledge systems are important in building a resilient agricultural sector to improve farmers' food security, and livelihoods and build resilient capacity toward pandemics. The COVID-19 pandemic was a big threat to Nigeria's food security since the bulk of the food produced in Nigeria is by the smallholder farmers who are often vulnerable to shocks. The paper examined smallholder farmers' knowledge, attitude, and perception of the COVID-19 pandemic using descriptive statistics. A total of 400 smallholder farmers in the study area were interviewed about their knowledge and perception of the COVID-19 pandemic. The finding showed that 332 of the respondents were aware of the virus, 340 did not believe in the existence of the virus, 365 believed they cannot be infected by the virus, and 271 adhered to government-imposed measures on combating the virus. On the methods employed to mitigate the spread of the virus in the study area, 180% of the respondents observed the social distancing, 78% used hand sanitizer, 48% wore nose masks and 40% reduced farm visits.
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