Assessing the extent of adoption of the climate smart agriculture practices by farmers in Delta State, Nigeria

Abstract

Globally, climate change is an issue of concern as included in the SDGs. Its effect on Nigeria, an agrarian nation with an average nominal GDP of 40% from agriculture, can be worrisome as agricultural harvest largely depends on adequacy of natural resources. Change in weather pattern, rainfall often leads to the experience of food insecurity. As a result, in Delta State, Nigeria, the outcomes of climate change put livelihoods at a major threat. Therefore, it is imperative to improve the farming practices through the adoption of Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA). Climate smart agriculture (CSA) practices suggest effective ways and strategies towards food security of a nation. Therefore, this study investigated the extend of CSA adoption by farmers in Delta State, Nigeria.  A multistage sampling technique was adopted for the study and data from 276 farmers were obtained with a structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics was used as the estimation technique.  The analysis of the quantitative data disclosed that: Intercropping (74.6%) was the most adopted CSA by respondents; and 47.1 % of the respondents understand the importance of CSA. The results showed that the extent of adoption of CSA practices was on a small scale and quite low as farmers mostly adopted intercropping. It was therefore recommended that awareness on the importance of CSA with technical assistance should be provided to farmers in order to promote CSA practices. Also, government agencies and cooperate organizations should leverage on current global SDG drive, and provides enabling environment and incentives for a wider scale adaptation of CSA.