SMART Agriculture and Rural Farmers Adaptation Measures to Climate Change in Southeast Nigeria: Implications for Sustainable Food Security

Abstract

The study evaluated SMART agriculture and rural farmers’ vulnerability to climate change, adaptation measures and determinants of choice of adaptation strategies to climate change in Southeast, Nigeria. Data used for the study covered the period 1984–2014 and involved 1240 participatory rural farmers. Data collected were analysed using bivariate and multivariate analyses and multinomial logit model. The findings showed unsteady distribution of climate variables with peak points across the period under review. Rainfall volume, rain days, and relative humidity showed decreasing trends, while temperature and sunshine duration showed increasing trends. Late commencement of planting, use of fertilizers and pesticides, tree planting, use of soil conservation techniques and use of resistant crop varieties were identified to be the most effective adaptation measures to climate change adopted by farmers in the area. The result further shows that age of farmer, land tenure-ship, extension contact, gender, farm size, value of assets, farming experience and access to credit were the major determinants of choice of adaptation measures. The average per capita food energy consumption estimated for the farmers (2100 kcal < 2500 kcal) show that the farmers were food insecure. It was further observed that the sustainability values estimated for the farmers over the time period showed increasing trend.