Determinants Of Climate Change Adaptation Strategies Employed By Arable Crop Farmers In Cross River State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigated the climate change adaptation strategies employed by arable crop farmers in Cross River State, Nigeria. It adopted a multi-stage and random sampling procedure to select 318 registered arable crop farmers from three agricultural zones in the State. Primary data were collected using a set of structured questionnaires and analysed using descriptive statistics, and a multinomial logit model (inferential statistics). The results indicate predominance (63%) of male arable crop farmers, with an average age of 48±10.91years. A majority (96.54%) had attained some level of education and had a mean farm size of 1.02±0.10 hectares. The adaptation strategies employed by the respondents included; crop diversification (77.04%), off-farm employment (73.90%), adoption of enhanced crop cultivars (69.50%), land fragmentation (68.55%), and planting of early maturing crops (57.23%). The multinomial logit analysis which revealed that education (0.052; 0.065) positively and significantly influenced the adoption of enhanced cultivars (P<0.01) and early-maturing crops (p<0.05) respectively, while access to extension services (0.025) positively and significantly (p<0.05) influenced the adoption of enhanced cultivars. On the other hand, the coefficients of farm size (0.033, 0.0312 and 0.013) were positive and significantly influenced, use of enhanced cultivars, planting early maturing crops and off-farm employment respectively. Conversely, age (-0.054, -0.012, -0.021 and -0.031) negatively impacted use of enhanced cultivars, planting of early-maturing crops, off-farm employment and land fragmentation strategies respectively.  It is recommended that government and non-governmental organisations should create and implement policies supporting sustainable land management practices, encouraging off-farm employment, improving financial access for farmers, promoting climate-smart agriculture educational programs, and advancing research on climate-resilient crops.