Climate change adaptation practices of smallholder arable crop farmers in Kwara State, Nigeria

Abstract

Findings of the study indicated that majority of the respondents had formal education with average of 7 years of farming experience. The leading impacts of climate change were poor farm planning (x̄=4.79), loss of farm crops (x̄=4.82) and food insecurity (x̄=4.80). The main adaptation measures used by farmers include organic agriculture (x̄=3.59), afforestation (x̄=3.52) and crop rotation (x̄=3.53). Severe problems that hindered effective usage of adaptation practices of the farmers were inadequate extension visit (x̄=4.85), insufficient government interventions (x̄=4.71) and inadequate access to inputs needed for adaptation (x̄=4.69). Pearson correlation analysis indicated that increase years of formal education significantly leads to increase use of adaptation practices among farmers. In conclusion, this study found that crop rotation, afforestation and organic agriculture practices were the main adaptation practices used by the smallscale farmers. Consequently, more agricultural extension officers should be recruited to provide adequate dissemination of smart practices to adapt the effects change in climate on arable crops among farmers.