Factors Influencing Cassava Farmers' Choices of Climate Adaptation Strategies in Rainforest Agro-Ecological Zone of Southwest, Nigeria

Climate change manifests itself through increasing variation in the weather, including temperature, precipitation, and wind. Scientific research confirmed climate change is occurring and expected to aggravate incoming decades (IPCC, 2014). Since 1950, the number of warm days and nights has increased, and it is projected that the length, frequency, and intensity of heatwaves will increase on most of the land (Field et al., 2012). As a result of climate change the pattern, timing and intensity of the precipitation has also altered. The number of heavy precipitation events has increased but with strong regional variations (Field et al., 2012). Rise in temperature and changes in precipitation are changing water availability and other stresses for crops with effects on crop yield, income, and poverty.

Climate change poses threats to food security because of its impact on the agricultural system. Agricultural production inmost Sub-Saharan African Countries (Nigeria inclusive) is dependent on weather. Climate change has a direct influence on the productivity of physical production factors such as soil‟smoisture and soil fertility and this affects farming output. Evidences from literature and past studies have revealed that the recent climate change has influenced agricultural productivity leading to declining global food production (Kurukulasuriya and Mendelsohn, 2006; (International Institute for Sustainable Development) (IISD), 2007; Lobell et al., 2008). A negative and unfavourable climate change could engender adverse climatic conditions like drought, flooding that would result into food shortage and food insecurity like is being experienced in countries like Somalia, Sudan and other countries within the borders of the arid zones. Nigeria is not left out of this environmental quagmire. During the flooding in the southern part of the country in 2013, for example, several hundreds of thousands of farmland/crops were destroyed. Extreme and adverse environmental conditions can also trigger price increases and food import to augment local production. Extreme weather events can damage or destroy transport and distribution infrastructure and affect other non-agricultural parts of the food system adversely (Felix et al., 2018). It is then less difficult to believe that agricultural productivity under the prevailing climate change situation inmost developing countries will be very low. Consequently, the low crop yield will lead to unavoidable shocks to the already fragile economies in African countries. Food prices are expected to rise, worsening the food insecurity and poor nutritional health conditions in the continent. The impact of climate change on food production, prices and food security depends on regional climate change, biological effects of increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide, changes in floods, droughts and other extreme events, existing agricultural systems, adaptive capacity, changes in population, economic growth and technological innovation (Pittock, 2005). A clear example is the drought and food crisis situation that has been ravaging the horn of Africa (particularly Somalia, Northern Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Eritrea) since the second quarter of 2011 which has claimed many human lives, led to the death of millions of animals and livestock and has predisposed millions of people to health and nutritional challenges (Solomon and Leslie, 2015).

Large-scale farmers are more likely to adapt to climate change because they have more capital and resources (Hassan and Nhemachena, 2008; Aymone, 2009). Productive resources such as capital, land and labor serve as important factors for coping with and adapting to climate change. The choice of the suitable adaptation measure depends on factor endowments (i.e. family size, land area and capital resources) at the disposal of farming households (Hassan and Nhemachena, 2008). The study focused on climate change adaptation strategies of cassava production where socio-economic variables and factors determining cassava farmers‟ choice of climate adaptation strategies were assessed for this study.