Perceived effect of climate change on crop production by farmers in Edo state, Nigeria

Abstract

The study analyzed farmers’ perception of climate change effect on production and examined the perceived effect of climate change on farmers’ livelihood, Data was collected from 270 farmers sampled from nine Local Government Areas in the three agricultural zones of Edo state. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics involving frequency distribution, percentages and mean, Binomial test and Friedman test were used to test the hypotheses of the study. The result of the analysis showed that most of the respondents were female (52.6%), married (87.8%) and relatively young (mean age 53 years), had formal education (73.7%) and having an average family size of nine. The major crops produced by the respondents were maize (65.6%), cassava (64.4%), melon (49.6%) and yam (47.4%). Weather conditions such as early rainfall (84.44%), late rainfall (62.96%), frequency of rainfall (53.30%), and drought (50%) were seen as unpredictable by respondents. The climate change parameters experienced by the respondents were increase in excessive heat at night (88.15%), flooding (71.11%), incidence of gully erosion (61.85%) and increase in temperature (50%). A major effect of climate change on the farmers’ livelihood was reduction in farm income (mean=3.31), while the most perceived effects of climate change on the farmers production were land slide/erosion of farm (mean = 2.6) and damages to crop (mean = 2.6). The study recommended that weather forecasts and predictions should be made available to the farmers right on time and enlightenment campaign on how to cope with climate change should be embarked upon by members of the Agricultural Development Program.

Key words: Binomial test., Climate change., crop production., Friedman test., perception