Constraints to climate change adaptation among Cassava farmers in Abia State, Nigeria

Climate change is currently a major human security issue globally which poses threats to agriculture, malnutrition, shelter, security, disease and poverty in developing countries. This paper identified constraints to climate change adaptation among cassava farmers in Abia State, Nigeria. A multistage random sampling technique was used in the selection of agricultural blocks, cells and cassava farmers. A structured questionnaire was administered to 120 randomly selected cassava farmers. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and inferential analysis (Varimax factor analysis). The result of study showed that a good proportion (55%) of the farmers were men, with mean age of 45.5 years, 43.3% acquired secondary education and cultivated on mean farm size of 1.1 hectares. The result also showed that cassava farmers in the study area used improved cassava varieties ( = 3.6), mixed cropping ( = 3.5), early planting ( = 3.4) and fertilizer application ( = 3.2) as adaptation strategies to cope with climate change. The constraints to climate change adaptation among cassava farmers include; limited availability of farmland, un-inherited land ownership, non-availability of farm inputs, non availability of credit facilities, lack of awareness on coping or resilience, limited access to weather forecast, government irresponsiveness to resultant effect of climate change, limited access and high cost of labour. It is therefore recommended that regularly trainings on climate change and variability, accessibility to meteorological data, steady availability of improved cassava varieties to farmers and review of Land Use Act of 1990 in Nigeria to increase access to land to farmers were advocated.