Perceived Effects of Drought on Urban and Peri-urban Crop Production in Nigeria: Farmers’ Adaptation Measures

Abstract

This paper examines the perceived effects of drought on crop production in Ilorin and its fringes by making use of climatic elements (temperature and rainfall) and crop yield for a period of 10years. One hundred and twenty crop farmers were sampled randomly with copies of questionnaire. Climatic and crop yield data from 2011-2020 were collected. Findings revealed that sampled farmers (85%) perceived drought to be cessation of rainfall for a long period during rainy season. Causes of droughts include insufficient rainfall, high temperatures and deforestation among others. Decline in crop was perceived as the greatest effect of drought on crop production by 92% of the sampled farmers. The correlation analysis revealed rainfall is highly correlated with maize (0.723), but weakly correlated with sorghum (0.190) and cassava (0.037). Maximum temperature correlates weakly with cassava (0.003). Minimum temperature also
correlates weakly with cassava (0.019) maize (0.274) and sorghum (0.152). The regression analysis revealed that 43%, 67% and 82% of the variance in sorghum, maize and cassava production respectively could be explained by the climatic elements under study. Amongst the adaptation measures suggested include irrigation and changing planting dates. It can therefore be concluded that fluctuations in rainfall and temperature resulted into drought, which affect crop production in the study area.