Rice Farmers’ Awareness and Perception of Climate Change in Ondo State, Nigeria

The study investigated rice farmers’ awareness and perception of climate change on rice production in Ondo State, Nigeria. The objectives of the study are to: describe the socio-economic characteristics of the rice farmers, determine the level of awareness among rice farmers, examine the perceptions of the respondents on climate change, examine the coping strategies to climate change and identify the constraints militating against the production of rice. A validated interview scheduled was used to source information from one hundred and forty-four rice farmers. Primary data were collected on some socio-economic characteristics of rice farmers, awareness level of climate change, perceived effect of climate change on rice production, adaptation strategies and constraints to rice production in the study area. Descriptive statistics such as frequency count, percentage, mean, and ranking were used to summarize the data. Multiple regression analysis was employed to determine the relationships between selected socio-economic characteristic of rice farmers and their level of awareness of climate change. The mean age of rice farmers was 43.1 years with male (59.7%) dominated rice farming, 78.5% were married, and 70.2% percent could read and write. The mean annual income was N298.611 and mean farm size was 3.3hectares. Rice farmers were aware of climate change through some changes in climate elements such as excessive rainfall, prolonged dry season, high temperature, pests, and diseases infestations etc. As perceived by rice farmers, some effects of climate change were poor growth, poor yield, poor marketing, and the adaptation strategies employed were increased farm size, planting of improved rice varieties, irrigation practices change in planting periods etc. The regression results shows that household size had co-efficient (0.30), sex (0.509), years of farming experience (0.211) and level of education (0.383) which are positively significant to rice farmers’ awareness of climate change. It was found that rice farmers were aware of climate change. The study therefore recommends that rice farmers should be encouraged by Government and Non-Government agencies through the provision of improved rice varieties, fertilizers etc. Rice farmers should also be encouraged to form themselves into cooperative societies in order for them to have easy access to credit and other facilities.