Perception and adaptation to climate change among farmers in selected communities of Ekiti State, Nigeria

Abstract

Abstract: This study discusses the findings of the research that was carried out in Ikogosi Warm Spring Communitiesof Ekiti State among predominantly smallholder arable crop farmers on their knowledge of climate change andadaptation strategies. The study discovered that almost all the farmers interviewed perceived changes in climate. Theresult of factors influencing farmers perception decisions using ordered logit regression analysis showed that gender,age and level of education were statistically significant in making decisions on the level of perception made by thefarmers. Finally, multinomial logit regression model was employed to analyse the factors that are influencing farmers choice of adaptation on climate change and variability. The results indicate that gender, age, farming experience, landtenure, farm size, access to extension services, access to loan, engage in non-farming activities, temperature andrainfall were the main factors influencing farmers choice of adaptation to mitigate effect of climate change in thestudy area. It is therefore, concluded that government policies and investment strategies must focus on most of thefactors highlighted above in order to rescue the poor crop farming households from the danger of climate chang e.