Farming Families and Climate Change Issues in Niger Delta Region of Nigeria: Extent of Impact and Adaptation Strategies

Abstract

The study focused on the impacts of climate change on the farmer and the farming families in Niger Delta Region of Nigeria. The study specifically evaluated the perceived resultant situations attributed to climate change to determine the extent of impacts of climate change on the farmer and the farming families and also explored adoptable strategies for coping with the situations. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. Two research questions and two hypotheses guided the study. The population for the study was 246,909 respondents made up of farmers and extension workers who are registered with the State Ministries of Agriculture. Out of the nine Niger Delta states, Bayelsa and Delta states were randomly chosen for the study. Proportionate stratified random sampling technique was used to select a sample size of 5,038 respondents. Structured questionnaire and interview were used to collect data. The instruments were validated by three experts. Cronbach Alpha method was used to determine the internal consistency of the questionnaire items which yielded a coefficient of 0.81. The Statistical Product and Service Solutions (SPSS v 20.0) was employed for data analysis. The statistical tools used for data analysis were weighted mean to answer research questions and standard deviation to validate the closeness of the respondents from the mean and from each other in their responses while t-test was used to test the null hypotheses. The findings of the study revealed that the extent of impacts of climate change on farmers and the farming families in Niger Delta region of Nigeria are moderate. Findings further revealed that climate change has led to increased poverty level and raised cost of production (input and labour cost) as indicated by the farmers. The study recommends that farmers in the region should be encouraged by providing incentives and subsidizing inputs for them by Federal and State governments as well as other non-governmental organizations, as this will go a long way in improving production especially as most farmers agree to continue cultivation even with the observed impacts.

Households Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climate Variability Induced Water Stress on Downstream Kaduna River Basin

“…This reduces water available for domestic activities such as cooking, bathing and drinking water for both human and livestock. Similar situation have been observed in Niger Delta by [41]. More insect plagues (example mosquitoes) and increasing trend of water and vector-borne diseases such as cholera, malaria, and diarrhoea were reported by participants.…”

“…Increase in runoff patterns in recent years has been documented by [39] [40]. This leads to flash flood and is observed as a major threat to agriculture and livelihood [41]. The general trend of increasing mean yearly temperature pattern was observed (Figure 4).…”

Altered climate and livelihood of farming families in Niger Delta region of Nigeria

“…The scenario will definitely affect the economic viability of farming as a sustainable means of livelihood. The findings of this study as presented in Table 1 are in agreement with that of Uyigue and Agho (2007), Bhusal (2009), Miguel and Koohafkan (2010), and Ikehi et al (2014) that stated that difficulty and cost of agricultural production will increase with decreasing returns to the farmer. The authors anticipated more problems (which are now occurring) in farming resulting from altered climate.…”

“…The main effect of altered climate is the increasing average temperature which causes a variety of secondary effects (IPCC, 2007). The secondary effects include changes in patterns of precipitation affecting rainfall, rising sea levels, altered patterns of agriculture, increased extreme weather events, expansion of the range of tropical diseases, among others (IPCC, 2007;Ogundele, 2012;Ikehi et al, 2014). These secondary effects have affected the world in varying degree of impacts in different regions.…”

Climatepreneurship: Adaptation Strategy for Climate Change Impacts on Rural Women Entrepreneurship Development in Nigeria

“…In Nigeria, Nwokeoma et al (2017), Ikehi et al (2014), Akinbami et al (2015Akinbami et al ( , 2019, and Ali (2011), have reported on the effects and social consequences of climate change on the farming families, livelihood practices, farmlands, economic activities, food security, health, and physical infrastructure in various communities in the country. These studies reveal that global warming which is as a result of climate change has serious impacts on the communities and their livelihood practices, and these effects will spiral out of control, if the current trend of increasing greenhouse gas emissions is not curbed.…”