Enhancing farmers’ knowledge on climate-smart agriculture using learning videos in Irepodun LGA, Kwara State

Abstract

This paper assessed the climate smart agricultural practices using learning videos in Irepodun LGA, Kwara State, Nigeria using qualitative and  quantitative methods in data collection. One hundred and forty-eighty farmers were randomly selected using interview schedule. Also, focus group  discussions were conducted with 137 participants. Pairwise comparison was used to evaluate the difference between the proportion of household heads  who used the videos to learn and those who did not use the videos. The study revealed that farmers have similar perception of climate change and  related impacts in video-villages and in non-video-villages. However, the study revealed farmers’ observation of climate change and related impacts are  influenced by gender, with men perceiving more climate change and related impacts than women. In non-video villages, few respondents adopted crop  rotation, intercropping, crop diversification, and improved short-cycle seed varieties as climate change adaptation strategies. Videos contribute more to  the adoption of crop rotation, intercropping and fertilizer application for men than for women. Videos on accounting (managing money) enable more  women than men to enhance their cost-benefit evaluation practices for income improvement. During the interviews, women farmers in video-villages  were eager to demonstrate their knowledge about cost-benefit evaluation. Furthermore, the yield of sorghum, cassava and maize is higher in video-  villages than in non-video-villages. Thus, using videos as an extension tool is suitable for knowledge development and leads to the high adoption of  climate-smart agricultural practices for food security.