Indigenous practices used by maize farmers in climate change adaptation in Emohua local government area, Rivers State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study investigated the indigenous practices used by maize farmers in climate change adaptation in Emohua Local Government Area, Rivers State. Specifically, the study ascertained the respondents’ awareness and level of awareness of climate change, identified the respondents’ source of information on climate change and assessed the indigenous practices used in climate change adaptation by the respondents. 100 respondents were selected from the population of all registered maize farmers in the study area through multistage sampling procedure. Data were obtained primarily with the aid of structured questionnaires and analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequency count, mean and percentage. The result revealed that majority (70%) of the respondents were female, all of the respondents have notice change in climate at a point and they have high awareness level in variation in solar radiation (ẋ=2.92). the respondents’ sources of information were fellow farmers (91.0%), personal experience (89.0%), radio (86%). The indigenous practices used by the farmers for climate change adaptation were planting of other crops with maize (ẋ=3.87), employing climate knowledge gained from other farmers (ẋ=3.54). The use of indigenous knowledge in maize farming has been in use as climate change adaptation strategy to improve rural farmers living conditions in the study area. Therefore indigenous knowledge should be incorporated into climate smart agriculture to equip them with the skills necessary for coping with the impacts of climate change so as to improve their maize production and enhance their living conditions.