Awareness and adaptation to climate change among yam-based farmers in rural Oyo state, Nigeria

Climate change is a serious environmental and economic issue confronting our world. Climate Change is a threat multiplier that makes poverty more chronic, worsens adverse health conditions and capable of inducing conflicts. The adverse climate change impacts materialise in various sectors of the economy. However, the effect is unique in developing countries that rely on agriculture. The paper examined the level of awareness and adaptation to climate change among yam-based farmers in rural areas of Oyo state. Yam is a root crop with huge economic and nutritional importance in Nigeria. However, Nigerian agriculture being rain-fed is exposed to the vagaries of weather hence the constraint to yam production. Primary data were used for the study. Personal interviews and well-structured questionnaire were used to elicit pertinent information. The information collected includes socioeconomic characteristics, perceptions on climate change, adaptation strategies and constraint to adaptation in the study area. Multistage sampling technique was used for the selection of respondents. At the first stage, three Local Government Areas (LGAs)-Saki East, Iseyin and Itesiwaju were purposively selected based on the dominance of yam production. The second stage involved the random selection of three communities from each LGA. At the third stage, simple random sampling technique was used to select 21 farming households from each community making a total of 189 households. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and logit regression model. The results of the descriptive analysis showed 92.1 percent of the respondents were married with an average household size of 9. Majority of the respondents (67.6 percent) cultivate yam on less than 2 hectares. The study revealed about 59 percent and 57 percent of the respondents do not have access to credit and extension services respectively. The farmers are aware of climate change effects with varying levels of knowledge. Majority of the farmers claimed yam output has been declining in the study area. However, adaptation strategies used by farmers to improve yam production in spite of climate change include mixed cropping, irrigation, diversification and change in planting dates. Meanwhile, climate change-induced problems in the study area are dwindling income and alteration of farm calendar, soaring labour cost, clashes between pastoralists and crop farmers and health issues. The paper recommended increased awareness on climate change through making existing information channels accessible to farmers. There is the need for government and microfinance institutions to provide credit to farmers in order to enhance their adaptive capacities.