Farmer’s Adaptive Strategies To Climate Change in Akinyele Local Government Area, Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract

Agriculture and climate change are inextricably linked to crop yield, biodiversity, water use, as well as soil health. The research sets the objectives of describing the socioeconomic characteristics of farmers in Akinyele L.G.A of Oyo state, identifying various adaptive measures and the determinants of appropriate climate-change adaptation measures used by farmers in the agricultural communities of the study area. A sample of farmers who have registered with the Federal Ministry of Agricultural, Growth Enhancement Support Scheme (GES) Akinyele chapter were recruited in the research. Questionnaire was used to gather data on the age, gender, education and farming experiences of the farmers. Data was also collected on these adaptive capacity measures: Membership of social organizations, mixed farming, change from crop production to animal rearing, seeking early warning information on climate change among others. Percentages, frequencies were used to analyze the data. The variables were also subjected to regression analysis.70% of the farmers in the study area are male and about the same percentage of them fall within the age range of 31-60 years. Only 33% of the farmers have post- primary education. The result of the regression analysis reveal that planting of improved varieties (0.841,0.001) intensive fertilizer/manure application (0.005,0.421) have positive and significant relationship in determining farmer’s adaptation strategies while contour ridging (1.950, 0.970) has positive but not significant relationship in determining farmer’s adaptation strategies .Change from crop production to animal rearing (-1.766, 0.567) has negative and insignificant relationship in determining farmer’s adaptation strategies

Keywords: Adaptation, Growth Enhancement Support Scheme, Strategies, Climate change, Communities