Effects of Climate on Arable Crop Farmers’ Productivity, Food Security and Adaptation Strategies in Nigeria

Effects of Climate on Arable Crop Farmers’ Productivity, Food Security and Adaptation Strategies in Nigeria

CHAPTER ONE

Objectives of the study

The broad objective of this study is to assess the economic effects of climate change on arable crops’ productivity, food security and adaptation practices in Nigeria. Specifically the study:
ranked climate change risks affecting arable crop farmers;
estimated the influence of climate-factors on arable crop productivity variability (i.e. yield and net revenue variability) in the agro-ecological zones;
determined the effects of climate variability and farmers’ socioeconomic attributes on the level of household food security among crop farm households;
ascertained the influence of climate change and other determinants on crop farmers’ choices of adaptive technologies adopted to cope with felt and actual climate change;
determined the influence of gender on level of adoption of climate change adaptation technologies by arable crop farmers.

Content Summary

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Theoretical review

Theory of utility

The decision of whether or not to use any Climate-Smart Agricultural Practice (CSAP) option falls within the framework of utility (satisfaction derived) and profit maximisation (income derived) (Pryanishnikov and Katarina, 2003). Every economic agent (including subsistence rural farmers), are presumed to only use Climate-Smart Agricultural Practice if the perceived satisfaction or profit that would be derived from it, is considerably higher than what the situation would have been without using it. Even though utility is not observed directly, all economic agents detect it by the choices they make. Take for instance, any rational farmer who expects to get the best out of the present value of the future benefits of production for a specified period of time, such a rational farmer is obliged to choose wisely among a set of k Climate- Smart Agricultural Practice options. The i^th farmer will choose to use k^th Climate- Smart Agricultural Practice option, if he perceives that the benefits from using such option k far outweighs the utility derived from choosing another option (say, p) given as:

U = (b ‘ C + e ) > U (b ‘ C + e), p ¹ k ik k i k ip p i p

(1) Where: U_ik and U_ip represents the perceived satisfaction derived by the i^th farmer from the use of Climate-Smart Agricultural Practice options k and p, respectively; X_i represent vector of independent variables influencing the choice of the CSAP option; β_k and β_p are estimated parameters; while ε_k and ε_p are error terms that are presumed to be independent and distributed identically (Green, 2000).

CHAPTER THREE

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Method of data collection

The data employed for this study were primary data, gathered from the sampled arable farm households, who engaged in farming, during a survey conducted between February and April, 2024. The cross-sectional data was obtained by means of structured questionnaire administered to rural farmers with the aid of trained enumerators, who were staff of International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and Agricultural Development Program (ADP) in Sokoto and Katsina States, respectively, who already had an established rapport among the arable farmers living in the area. These enumerators were trained and the aim of the study explained to them during the course of the training.

Data for this research work were collected on the following information:

Household socioeconomic characteristics
Climate variability and CSAP
Cropping activities (inputs and output)
Food expenditure and consumption patterns

Sampling procedure and Sample size

A four-stage sampling procedure was used in this study. The first stage includes a simple random selection of two states out of the total of seven states in North-Western Nigeria, which were Katsina and Sokoto States. The second stage entails a random selection of ten (10) Local Government Areas (LGAs) from the two states selected proportionate to sizes. In Katsina State, 6 LGAs were selected out of 34 LGAs and in Sokoto State, 4 LGAs were selected out of the 23 LGAs, using the proportionality formula following Ibrahim (2011) as shown in equation 30:

CHAPTER FOUR

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Profiling the level of use of CSAP by arable farm households in the study area

Categorizations of farming households into levels of use of CSAP

The categorization of the farming households on the basis of their level of use of CSAP was achieved using responses to 10 items that represent different CSAP used in the study area. The division of the farmers into various groups on the basis of their level of use of CSAP is shown in Table 4.1. The mean score was estimated as 5.21, while the standard deviation was estimated as 1.89. On the basis of these values, the farm households were grouped into three groups as shown below:

CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS

Summary of major findings

This study investigated the effect of using Climate-Smart Agricultural Practices (CSAP) on crop productivity and food security status of arable farming households in North-Western Nigeria.

The study adopted a four-stage sampling techniques in which 577 respondents out of 600 were used for the research using structured questionnaires and data collected for the study were analysed using descriptive statistics, adaptation strategy use index, ordered probit model, total factor productivity index, ordinary least square regression, cost-of-calorie measure and binary logit model.

The categorisation of the arable farm households into their level of use of CSAP using composite score showed that 18.4%, 57.5% and 24.1% of the respondents were low- user, medium-user and high-user of CSAP respectively. This implies that most of the farmers interviewed for this research belong to the medium-user of CSAP.

Average age of farmers was 48 years in the studied area, while across the CSAP groups, the average age were 46, 50 and 47 years for the low-user, medium-user and high-user groups, respectively. The implication is that the farmers here are in their energetic age and thereby strong enough to engage in farming activity. Majority (91.0%) of the respondents are of the male gender, with most (45.1%) of them having quranic education as highest level of education. Also, a large number of the farmers were married (92.2%), had 11 persons as their average household size and belonged to one or more social groups (52.9%). Likewise, 54.8% often had contact with extension officers.

Conclusion of the study

The research was carried out to evaluate the effect of using CSAP on the productivity and food security status of farm households in North-western Nigeria. From the observed evidences that emanated from this research, the conclusions below are made:

Arable farming households used CSAP at various levels, namely: low-users, medium-users, and high-users of CSAP.
Most of the household heads were still in their active age with large household They were predominantly males, married, acquired quranic education and are small scale farmers with good farming experience, owning livestock and inherited their farm land.
A large proportion of the farm households perceived an increased temperaturelevel and decreased rainfall pattern. They also asserted that climate change negatively affected their cropping activities, worsened their water supply and moderately caused
The farm households also used CSAP for farming and the five predominant CSAP in the area under study were organic manure, conservation agriculture, crop diversification, planting of cover crops and crop rotation in descending

5.2 Policy implications and recommendations:

In line with the outcomes of this research and the conclusions drawn, recommendations were made towards increasing the use of CSAP in North-western Nigeria in order to boost agricultural output and consequently enhance the food security condition amidst farm household under this study and in Nigeria as a whole:

Inline with the perception of the arable farming households that climate change affected their crop productivity negatively, due to decreased rainfall, high temperature and short duration of precipitation, government and Non- Governmental Organisation (NGOs) who are concerned about improving the agricultural sector should provide irrigation facilities for the rural farmers and also organize training on rain harvesting for the farmers. This will help to curb the challenge of poor water supply and drought caused by climate change and would also facilitate double cropping
Thereis a connection between the use of CSAP and crop productivity, therefore farmers in the area studied and Nigeria as a whole should be educated and enlightened on the benefits of using CSAP in their cropping activity via farmer field days by extension agents. This will enhance the usage of CSAP among the farming households and consequently boost crop productivity.

Based on the findings from this research that the total factor productivity ofmajority of the arable farming households were at a deteriorating level, government agency like the Bank of Agriculture (BOA) should provide farmers with agricultural credit at subsidized rate that would be used to procure productive resources such as improve seed variety and other farm inputs to increase crop productivity.

Theuse of organic manure was the predominant CSAP used by the rural farmers; therefore, there is need for the establishment of industries that produce organic manure (bio-organic fertilisers industries) in pellet form, which is less This can be achieved through public-private partnership with NGOs and agricultural firms.
Membership of farmers‟ association was a key factor that influenced CSAPusage in the studied area; therefore, farmers should be well-informed by extension agents about the benefits of belonging to farmers‟ association (especially farmers‟ cooperative society), as this might likely assist them in getting farm inputs, accessing soft loans as well as getting vital information on the benefits of modern farming techniques, like CSAP, that would help to boost crop
The high level of food insecurity, low calorie intake as well as food insecuritydepth and severity among the arable farming households requires that farmers themselves should do more in improving their food security status by creating and partaking in off-farm economic opportunities, which will diversify the source of their income and also help to increase their purchasing power (income) and in turn, help them to meet their minimum daily calorie

This study revealed a strong connection between CSAP and food security;therefore, in achieving the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number thirteen, which stipulate taking vital steps to fight climate change and its consequential impacts, policy makers should formulate policies which would persuade investment in climate-smart agriculture both by the private sector or public sector of government. This would assist farmers in fighting the threat of climate change on their farming practices. This in turn would motivate farmers to practice CSAP more, thereby improving their food production and subsequently food security
Improved seed varieties that are more productive and drought resistant shouldbe developed in our agricultural research institutes and Universities in Nigeria, and supplied to the rural farmers. The results from these researches would be beneficial to the rural farmers and likewise help to boost crop productivity in Nigeria‟s agricultural sector.

Major Contributions of the Study to Knowledge

Climate-smart agricultural practices (CSAP) were developed to deal with thechallenges caused by climate change and scanty empirical evidence exists on the practice of climate smart agriculture especially among rural farming households in North-Western Nigeria and Nigeria in This study therefore fills the gap in literature by investigating the practice of CSAP among the rural households in North-western Nigeria.
Previous studies on climate-smart agricultural practices focused on the practice from a broad perspective, that is, at national levels. This study contributed to knowledge by examining climate-smart agricultural practices at rural household level, that is, at micro-level.
Most studies focused on the usage of climate change adaptation strategies among farming households as cumulative entity. This study improved on this by using the composite score analysis to disaggregate the arable farming households into three levels of use of climate-smart agricultural practices with minimum deviations within groups.
Also, previous studies mainly focused on the impact of climate change and climate variability on yields of crops. This study contributed to literature by concentrating on the effect of climate-smart agricultural practices on crop productivity as well as food security status of arable farming households at various levels of use of climate-smart agricultural
In line with the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number thirteen, which is to “take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts”, this study hopes to enlighten policy makers and assist them in making policies that would combat the menace of climate change impact on crop productivity.

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