ABSTRACT
Climate change (CC) is one of the many biophysical challenges confronting many sources of livelihood including agriculture worldwide with resource-poor rural areas in sub-Saharan Africa as the worst hit. Countering CC impacts therefore depend on the effective mitigation and adaptation strategies. This study attempted to evaluate climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies among rural farmers (RF) in Uhunmwonde Local Government Area (ULGA), Edo State. Specific goals were to investigate the perceptions of CC manifestations among (RF), effects of CC on agriculture as well as CC mitigation and adaptation strategies (CCMAS) in the study area. Field survey with the use of well-structured questionnaires, personal observations and oral interviews were used in data acquisition while multi-stage and simple random sampling techniques were deployed to select 400 (RF) in 20 communities across the 10 political wards (PW) in ULGA with 99% retrieval rate. Descriptive and Likert’s frameworks were used in data analyses while the research hypotheses were tested using analysis of variance (ANOVA), one-sample t-Test and stepwise multiple regression at 0.05 confidence limit, in the International Business Machine-Statistical Package for Social Sciences (IBM-SPSS) version 22 software.
It was found that majority of the sampled (RF) (n = 202; 51%) had no knowledge of CC while 176 (44.4%) were aware with interaction with other experienced farmers (n = 178; 44.9%) as dominant information source. Also, high temperature/ extreme heat with weighted mean score (WMS) of 3.05), violent windstorms (WMS = 2.93), extreme cold at night (WMS = 2.86) and high/unpredictable rainfall (WMS = 2.81) were the most perceived CC manifestations in ULGA. Besides, reduction in farm income and frequent washing away of valuable nutrient (WMS = 3.56 each), poor quality and quantity of yield/output (WMS = 3.42), washing away of fertilizers/agro-chemicals and increased disease outbreak (WMS = 3.37 each), slow growth rate (WMS = 3.31) and frequent pest attack (WMS = 3.22) were also found as most perceived effects of CC. Similarly, CC mitigation strategies (CCMS) adopted most were reduced soil tillage and application of inorganic fertilizer (n = 198; 50%) and use improve irrigation and stopping water pollution (n = 234; 59.1%) while adaptation strategies ranged from mixed cropping with different species (n = 238, 60.1%), looking for alternative source of income/change occupation line (n = 266; 67.2%), use of early maturing crops/animal species (n = 274; 69.2%), change crop planting/animal stocking dates (n = 272; 68.7%) and planting of cover crops, use of shading and shelter belt (n = 232; 58.6%) among others. There was significant variation in the perceptions of CC manifestations by respondents across various PW in ULGA while the effects of CC on agriculture were also statistically significant, socio-economic and demographic characteristics of RF were significant determinants of CCMAS, all at 95% level of confidence. It was concluded that while there is a gap in CCMS, concerted efforts are still needed in key development areas particular in the aspect education, resource allocation and access to scale up the current tempo in adaptation options to boost resilience and food security in a sustainable manner. The study recommended the deployment of agricultural extension service personnel to rural communities for the purpose of information dissemination, technology and knowledge transfer to boost rural farmers’ resilience to climate change.
