Farmers’ Adoption of Climate Smart Practices for Increased Productivity in Nigeria

Abstract

In a bid to reinforce the efforts of agricultural professionals within the domain of climate change studies and with particular emphasis on rural farmers in Nigeria, this article explores the mechanics for adoption of climate smart agricultural practices among rural farmers for an increased agricultural productivity. Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) is paramount to the success of farming activities today in the face of the menace of the impact of climate change. Climate Smart Agricultural Practice (CSAP) is one of the major keys that agricultural development approaches aimed at; to sustainably increase productivity and resilience, while also reducing the effects; as well as removing emissions of greenhouse gases. It is pertinent to note that most of the CSAPs adopted by the rural farmers in this study are conservation agriculture, use of organic manure, crop diversification, use of wetland (Fadama), planting of drought tolerant crops, relocation from climate risk zones, prayers for God’s intervention, and improvement on farmers’ management skills. This study divulged and showcased the import of CSAP in boosting agricultural yield and also highlights the bottlenecks inhibiting agricultural farming practices such as lack of practical understanding of the approach, inadequate data and information, lack of suitable tools at local and national levels, supportive and enabling policy frameworks, and socioeconomic constraints at the farm level. The study concluded by recommending an aggressive awareness and mobilization campaign to boost the adoption of CSAPs in Nigeria.

Crop Farmers’ Access to E-information for Climate Smart Agriculture Production, in Cross River State, Nigeria

“…However, these results contradict those of a study conducted in Kenya by Muriithi et al (2021) where climate-smart agriculture technologies such as intercropping; crop rotation and crop diversification had low adoption rates of 16.88%, 15.09% and 10.06% respectively. Furthermore, results on Table 1 show that the least used CSA practices by the farmers were agroforestry (27.7%), water harvesting practices (25.1%), construction and use of irrigation facilities (14.1%) and land reclamation practices (16.2%).These results are consistent with findings in Kenya where the low adoption rates of 12.82% and 9.79% were observed for agroforestry and water harvesting practices by small scale farmers respectively (Muriithi et al, 2021).The implication of these results is that climate change is affecting farming activities in Cross River State; hence farmers are employing various ways to cope and build resilience even though rates of adoption of the practices may vary from one agro-ecological zone to another (Fawole and Aderinoye-Abdulwahab, 2020).…”

Stressors and Resilience within the Cassava Value Chain in Nigeria: Preferred Cassava Variety Traits and Response Strategies of Men and Women to Inform Breeding

“…Cassava possesses several well-documented resilient traits, establishing it as a key crop essential for food security [2][3][4][5][6][7] and climate change (CC) adaptation [8]. In Nigeria, farmers have been responding to the impacts of climate variability by planting improved cassava varieties with resilient traits against extreme weather [9][10][11]. The cassava traits related to resilience, which are preferred by both male and female farmers, include its adaptability to different ecosystems and soil types, its tolerance to extreme stress conditions and its ability to act as a substitute for crops more sensitive to climate stress, such as potatoes, rice and maize [12][13][14].…”