Abstract

The study investigated the effect of climate change and adaptation strategies among cocoyam farmers in Anambra state, Nigeria. Specifically, it determined the adaptation strategies used by the farmers on climate change, ascertained their sources of information on climate change, identified the causes of climate change and determined the perceived effects of climate change on cocoyam production. A multistage random sampling was use to select 120 cocoyam farmers. Structured questionnaires were used for the study. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Findings showed that majority (75%) of the farmers were female while 25% of them were male. The average mean age of the farmers was 37 years while the average farm size cultivated by the cocoyam farmers was 1.08 hectare. It also revealed that the farmers used personal experience (74.2%), friends/ neighbours (66.7%), fellow farmers (54.2%), cooperatives (52.5%), research institute (50%) and extension agents (44.2%) as their major sources of information on climate change. The result further revealed that the adaptation strategies used by the farmers as regards to climate change were planting drought tolerant varieties (3.29), use of early maturity varieties(3.50), use of disease resistant varieties (3.45), use of mounds and ridges (3.23), migrating from flooding area to non flooding land (3.12) and construction of local dam/irrigation (3.10). However, flooding (3.02), deforestation (2.13), bush burning (2.45), rainfall (3.3), drought (2.20) and erosion (2.40) were identified as the major causes of climate change. Farmers identified the perceived effects of climate change on cocoyam production as high incidence of pest /disease (2.60), reduction in crop yield (2.55), rotting of cocoyam root (2.35), ill health status of the farmers (2.29). Lose of property by flood (2.32) and addition of soil nutrient. The study recommended the organization of capacity building programs relevant to climate change and mitigations among farmers, the timely generation and dissemination of information on climate change and mitigations among rural farmers and the reviewing of extension curriculum to accommodate the training of extension personnel on climate change issues as methods for enhancing climate change, adaptation and mitigations.