Performance of Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation Roles by Frontline Agricultural Extension Workers in Southeast Nigeria

Abstract

The objective of this paper was to investigate the performance of climate change adaptation and mitigation roles by frontline agricultural extension workers in Anambra, Enugu and Imo states, Southeast Nigeria using appropriate standard methods.  Results indicated that the workers possessed sound knowledge of key climate-smart practices such as enterprise diversification ( = 3.7), use of improved crop varieties ( = 3.6), and mixed cropping ( = 3.6). However, significant knowledge gaps exist in areas like carbon sequestration (= 2.00) and agricultural (= 1.69). The primary climate change adaptation and mitigation roles performed by the workers were sensitization through field days, and disseminating information via radio and television (= 3.62). The major constraints to the performance of climate change adaptation and mitigation roles by the extension workers were inadequate government funding (= 3.62), poor access to climate information ( = 3.7), insufficient training ( = 3.4), and low motivation due to poor salaries ( = 3.7). A multiple regression analysis revealed that sex (t = 2.11), household size (t = -3.8), working experience, and monthly salary ( = 2.2), and the number of farm visits (t = 2.9) were the socioeconomic characteristics that significantly influenced the workers’ participation in the roles, significantly influencing role performance. The paper concludes that enhancing the effectiveness of workers requires sustained funding, improved training and access to meteorological information, better incentives, and stronger institutional linkages between research institutes and agricultural extension services to bolster agricultural resilience against climate change.