Socio-economic Determinants of Climate Change Adaptation among Crop Farmers in Ahoada West and Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Areas, Rivers State

Abstract

The study examined the socioeconomic determinants of climate change adaptation among crop farmers in Ahoada-West and Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Areas (ONELGA). Two hundred crop farmers were selected through purposive and simple random sampling methods from the registered farmers with the Agip Oil Green River Project. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression were used to analyse the data. The findings revealed that 62% of the respondents were females and 43% were males. About 73% of the respondents had varied levels of education. A mean household size of 4 persons and a mean age of 57 years was recorded, and about 85% had farming experiences ranging from 11-30 years. The logistic regression was run to determine the impact of gender, age, farming experience, education, and income on the probability of participants' ability to adapt to climate change. There was a statistically significant logistics regression model (61.201, p <.005). The model correctly classified 84% of instances and accounted for 40.20% (Nagelkerke R²) of the variation in adaptation. The ability of farmers to adjust to climate change was influenced by factors such as age and farming experience. The probability of the crop farmers to adjust to climate change decreased as their age increased (Odd Ratio (OR) = -1.248, 95% CI [0.144, 0.578]). It is recommended that the crop farmers look out for and engage themselves in off-farm activities to raise funds to supplement their farming engagements.