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Vulnerability And Adaptation Of Crops Farmers To Climate Change In Agricultural Zone
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According to the Inter Academy Council Report (IACR) (2004), adverse
climate change impacts are considered to be particularly strong in
countries located in tropical Africa that depend on agriculture as their
main source of livelihood. The challenge this poses affects sustainable
development on the continent. This challenge is composed of the likely
impacts on the ecosystem, agricultural production, and livelihoods.
Generally, losses in the agricultural sector due to climate change have
economy wide consequences, like loss in gross domestic output, a decline
in the income and the general deterioration on households’ welfare.
Climate change is also expected to exacerbate Africa’s struggles with
strained water resources and food security. Mendelsohn, Dinar and
Dalfelt. (2000) affirmed that rising global temperatures are expected to
increase flooding in coastal areas, cause declines in agricultural
production, threaten biodiversity and the productivity of natural
resources, increase and exacerbate desertification. Thereby exerting a
disproportionately adverse impact on Africa’s agriculture-based economy.
To make matters worse, Africa has a low adaptive capacity due to its
dependence on rain fed agriculture, low levels of human and physical
studies on the effects of climate change on economic variables,
estimated and a very high predicted loss of income due to climate change
through crop simulation experiments (Rosenzweig and Parry, 1994).
Nigeria,
like all the countries in Sub-Sahara Africa is highly vulnerable to the
impacts of climate change (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
IPCC 2007; Nigerian Environmental Study Team (NEST 2004). IPCC (2007)
further noted that Nigeria specifically, ought to have been concerned by
climate change because of the country’s high vulnerability due to its
long (800km) coastline that is prone to sea-level rise and the risk of
fierce storms.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Climate change
which is attributable to natural climate cycle and human activities, has
adversely affected agricultural productivity in Africa (Ziervogel,
Nyong, Osman, Conde, Cortes, and Dowing, 2006). As the planet warms,
rainfall patterns shift and extreme events such as droughts, flood, and
forest fires become more frequent (Zoellick, 2009). This results in poor
and unpredictable yields which subject farmers to vulnerable events
(United Nation Framework and Convention on Climate Change UNFCCC,
2007). Farmers who constitute the bulk of the poor in Africa face
challenges of tragic crop failures, reduced agricultural productivity,
increased hunger, malnutrition and disease.
Food crises in
countries such as Nigeria are reminders of the continuing vulnerability
of the region to the vicissitudes of climatic conditions. This is in
large measure due to weak institutional capacity, limited engagement in
environmental and adaptation issues, and a lack of validation of local
knowledge (Adams et al. 1988, Royal society 2005; BNRCC, 2008)
Accordingly, there is the need to gain as much information as possible,
and learn the positions of rural farmers and their needs, on what they
know about climate change in order to offer adaptation practices that
meet these needs (Apata, Samuel and Adeola, 2009). Specifically in West
Africa, small changes in comparison to the normal climatic factors can
lead to climate extremes with disastrous consequences on agriculture,
animal resources, and the economy as a whole. Other phenomena such as
desertification, deforestation and in particular, migration of
populations as a result of poverty associated to climatic effects call
for urgent sensitization and actions for government and populations on
climatic risk and their mitigation; and also their integration into
development strategies (ECA,2008).
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