Impact of Climate Change on Food Security in Nigeria

Abstract

Climate change is brought about by natural as well as man-made factors. Climate change or global warming has negative impact on the global environment. Some of these devastating effects include volcano, landslide, erosion, flooding, drought, pests and diseases. These factors in turn impact on agriculture and consequently threaten food security. This paper therefore is aimed at examining, through literature search, the impact of climate change on food security in Nigeria with a view to making suggestions on strategies to mitigate the impact of climate change on the environment generally and food security in particular. Some of the suggested strategies include: reducing the emission of green house gases by stopping deforestation; use of high yield and disease-tolerant crops and crops adaptable to extreme weather conditions; farmers to cultivate their crops when rains are expected rather than during =planting seasons‘. The paper concludes that the menace of environmental degradation occasioned by climate change has affected agricultural production in sub-Saharan Africa in general and Nigeria in particular and must be tackled with all seriousness it deserves.

Key words: Climate change, greenhouse gases, food security