Effect of climate change on household food security in ideato north local government area of Imo state, Nigeria

Abstract

Climate change has been implicated to have significant impacts on global and regional food production, particularly among the common staple food crops. This paper examined how the shift in climate in conjunction with other determinants affects the household food security in the study area. Data were collected through the use of structured questionnaire and subsequently, analyzed with simple descriptive statistics. Major findings of the study show that climate change affected food security of households in the study area in the following manner; reduction in production of crops and livestock 18.0%, changes in land suitable for production 18.3%, storage of planting crops and food item 8.9% and diseases infested of crops and livestock 15.6%. And they adapted the following strategies to mitigate the effect on their agricultural activities; changes in distribution of land under cultivation 8.9%, changes in land management 8.4%, increasing/decreasing planting materials 9.8%, fallowing 14%, mulching 15.4%, intercropping 16.3%, mix cropping 14.8% and indigenous agroforestry 4.9%. Based on the findings of this study, there is evidence that climate change affects agricultural production of the respondents which in turn will lead to a decline in output of their products. In all of these situations, the economic consequence is reduction in the availability of food.

Key Words: Climate Change, Rural Households and Food Security