Problem Confrontation Index to Farmers’ Adoption of Climate Coping Strategies in Niger State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study examined factors constraining farmer’s adoption of climate change coping strategies in Niger State, Nigeria. Multi-stage sampling procedure was used in selecting farmers for this study. Analysis of the socio-economic characteristics of farmers showed that about half (50.1%) of the farmers had primary, secondary or tertiary form of education. Majority (91.0%) of the farmers were male, 88.5% were married with the mean age 44 years. The mean household size was 11 persons in a household, while the average off-farm income and annual income from rice production was estimated to be ₦106,923.53 and ₦1,409,911.781 respectively. The average farm size is 2.5 hectares, implying that rice production is dominated by small-scale farmers. Farmers have observed an increase in the occurrence of erratic rainfall, rising temperature, occurrence of extreme winds, and increase in the duration and frequency of dry spells which influence negatively on rice production. This was indicated by 55.6%, 53.3%, 44.7%, and 56.4% of the farmers respectively. The highest constraints to the rice farmers’ adoption of climate coping strategies are high cost of farm inputs, inadequate access to weather information, economic/financial constraints, and inadequate access to credit. Each had problem confrontation index (PCI) value of 1228, 1219, 1190, and 1183 indicating the severity of each constraint respectively. Stakeholders should make efforts towards subsidizing agricultural inputs to farmers in order to facilitate their adoption of climate coping strategies. Also, policy makers should introduce climate-risk insurance to protect farmers from losses caused by droughts, erratic rainfall and extreme winds event.